


Harry's First Mate

by Sand_wolf579



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Abuse, First mate Gil, Gen, Gil is a ray of sunshine, Hurt/Comfort, Loyal Gil, Protective Harry, captain harry, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-01-29 01:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 63,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12619752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sand_wolf579/pseuds/Sand_wolf579
Summary: As long as Uma was gone, the position of Captain fell to Harry. And as long as he was in charge there was only one person that he trusted to be his first mate, and that was Gil.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on fanfiction.net

Harry had been living in a daze for the past week. Seven days. One hundred and sixty eight hours, almost to the minute. He had been just fine that first day, but with every second that passed he became even worse. By the time a week had passed Harry's head felt so groggy and clouded that he felt as though he was just living in an existence of limbo.

And he had been this way since Uma had left.

Everything had been going so well at first. Uma had found Mal's spell book. She had managed to swim past the barrier before the Auradon idiots could close it behind them. And even though Uma wasn't practiced at magic, she had put the king under her love spell. It was just a fluke that things didn't end up going in their favor.

Harry wasn't normally an optimistic person, but even after he saw that the bratty king was no longer under the love spell, he still felt the rare feeling of hope that they would make it off the Isle. After all, Uma would never abandon her crew.

Harry had been completely awestruck when Uma had used the magic in her mother's shell to become the beautiful, powerful goddess of the sea that he had always known that she was. He knew, he just knew that she would be able to defeat anybody in a fight and take what she wanted by force.

He had felt absolutely crushed when that wasn't what happened.

Even now Harry still felt confused. He didn't entirely understand how, but that baby beast had somehow talked Uma into leaving. He may have been trying to convince her to stay, that there was a place for her and her crew in Auradon, but the result was still Uma giving up and swimming away.

And Harry didn't understand it!

The Uma that he knew would never stop fighting. Maybe Harry would understand more if Uma had only given up because she accepted the king's offer, but she hadn't. She just gave up! She gave up on her dream of proving that she could be better than that Mal. She had given up on all of their dreams of getting to Auradon.

...She had given up on him.

Harry just didn't understand it, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to.

Uma had just left them, and with every day that passed Harry became more and more sure that she wasn't going to be coming back for them. She had abandoned her crew, and Harry didn't know how to deal with that. As much as he didn't want to admit it, even to himself, Harry relied on Uma. She was his crutch. His rock. The only thing that kept him sane.

Without her, there was no escape from the dark, twisted thoughts that tormented him every single day. Without Uma, Harry truly was lost.

When he was like this he could barely deal with his own thoughts and actions, let alone that of anybody else's. So when Harry had first began to feel the cracks because Uma was gone, he sent the rest of the crew away. He just couldn't handle them. Most of them left willingly, though he did have to resort to threatening to hook a few people (mostly just Gil) when they couldn't get the hint and refused to leave.

So now Harry really was by himself, and he didn't know how to cope. Day after day he just stood on the deck of Uma's ship and stared numbly out to the ocean. It really was the only thing that kept him from completely losing it. Instead he just mostly lost it. The hours all melded together and Harry still didn't know how he knew how many days had passed when everything just felt the exact same to him.

Like absolutely nothing.

On the seventh day Harry felt some slight pressure on his arm, as though somebody had grabbed him. He didn't think all that much of it though, because all week he had been feeling the lingering feelings of Uma holding or touching him, just being there at his side, but he knew it wasn't her. There wasn't anybody there. He was completely alone.

"-ry...Harry?" Huh, a voice was talking to him. That was a first, but he still wasn't all that surprised. He was actually almost even more surprised that it hadn't happened earlier. "Harry!" How weird. It sounded like the voice was shouting, but the voice was muffled, as though it was coming from under the water...maybe it was Uma. Maybe she finally came back for him.

Harry leaned forward over the railing to try to see, but the grip on his arm tightened and pulled him back. Harry's eyes widened when that happened, because a phantom feeling on his arm was not supposed to be able to pull him back. Somebody was there, and they were trying to keep him from Uma.

"No!" Harry shouted out furiously as he struggled to get back to the railing. Back to the ocean...back to his Uma. "Let me go! Uma!"

"Oh, geeze." whoever was holding Harry back tightened his grip even more and even wrapped their arms firmly around him to keep him from struggling. "Harry, calm down. Uma's not there."

"No!" Harry screamed and struggled wildly, but whoever had him was just not letting him go.

"It's okay, Harry." He could barely hear the voice through his own rage and the ringing in his ears, let alone recognize who it was, and he didn't really care. "Harry, stop, please." Harry paused at the word that was rarely used on the Isle, and whoever had him took that opportunity to turn him around and pull him tight against their chest. He was still being restrained, but it was not in a way that they did on the Isle of The Lost. This embrace was much more like a hug, which was definitely not something that they did on the Isle of The Lost...ever.

"It's okay, Harry." The voice soothed even as Harry continued to try to pull away from them. They didn't seem at all bothered by his resisting and screaming. They just continued to hold him. "I promise, it's okay. Uma will come back for us."

"Uma...she's coming back?" Harry froze. He hadn't thought that anybody truly believed that she would come back for them. He thought that everybody else had just assumed that she had abandoned them forever, just like he believed.

"Yeah, of course she's coming back." The voice sounded a little clearer, and Harry felt like he should know who it was, but he didn't. His mind was still too jumbled for him to concentrate on anything except the thought that maybe Uma hadn't abandoned them. "We're her crew. Of course she's coming back She wouldn't ever abandon her crew."

"Y-yeah." Harry nodded. "She'll be back." She was their captain. Their friend. She wouldn't just up and leave without a word.

"That's the spirit!" The voice sounded so ridiculously cheerful that Harry could hear their grin. It made him sick. They were on the Isle of The Lost. What reason would anybody have for being cheerful? "Come on, you look kinda dead." Whoever was holding him pulled back from holding him, only to firmly and yet gently grab his arm. Harry felt a pulling feeling at his arm, and he just numbly followed where he was lead. He didn't know where he was being taken, but he wasn't in the mood to fight it.

Harry stared with unseeing eyes out towards the ocean as he was pulled along. He didn't pay any attention to where he was being lead until he was pulled into what must have been the cabin, and he could only tell because now the ocean was out of sight. Harry began to panic. Uma was in the ocean, and that was where she would be when she came back, and he had to be there to see her arrival.

Harry's panic slowly ebbed away when the scent of the cabin hit him. There was the hint of rotten fish with a dash of the ocean breeze thrown in. It smelled exactly like Uma.

This must be her room.

"There we go." Harry was gently pushed onto Uma's bed and he was forced to lie down. "You should get some sleep. Uma'll probably be back when you wake up." Harry wasn't quite so optimistic, and he hated being forced to do anything, but he didn't even try to fight this time. Uma's bed was surprisingly soft, and it smelled so much like her that Harry's mind just instantly relaxed. He hadn't even realized how tired he was. Maybe a few hours of sleep wouldn't do any harm. And who knows? Maybe Uma really would be back by the time he woke up.

And even if she wasn't, at least he knew that she would be there in his dreams, and while it wasn't as good as the real thing it was still better than nothing.

Harry dozed off within seconds. He dreamed of the ocean, and his beautiful sea goddess coming back to him so she could take him to an island that was all their own. There weren't any parents to judge and torment them. No purple haired pretend princesses who thought that they were all that. No self righteous boys who were too young to be king. It was just them.

It was the best sleep that Harry had ever had.

Unfortunately, it couldn't last. Shortly after nightfall Harry woke up to face reality again. And there was nothing he hated more than reality, except maybe Auradon, but since Auradon was technically part of his reality, it counted.

Harry groaned and forced himself out of Uma's bed. His head was swimming and he felt somewhat hungover even though he hadn't had a drop of alcohol this week. At least he didn't feel like he didn't belong in his own body.

Harry frowned and sat up in the bed. He didn't remember much about earlier that morning, but he felt ridiculous about it. He knew that he had missed Uma (there hadn't been a single second this past week that he did not miss her) but he had the feeling that he had freaked out about it.

How was it fair that the one person who could keep him sane was now the one driving him more insane than he already was?

Harry needed to get away from this sentimental feeling of missing her. He needed to get away from her ocean...he needed to get away from this bloody ship.

Harry scowled and picked up his hook from the small desk next to the bed. He didn't remember putting it there, but he wasn't about to complain about it. Hook in hand Harry left the cabin and quickly walked across the deck towards the gangplank. He wasn't sure where he was headed to, but he needed to get away from any reminder of Uma. He just wanted to get her out of his head.

Harry walked around the Isle, being sure to keep away from the docks or what used to be Mal's turf, because he didn't want to be anywhere that reminded him of Uma. He wasn't as familiar with this area of the Isle, but he didn't have to know the streets to be able to steal a rotten apple or two from a cart when he passed it.

Harry was reminded exactly why he spent so little time on the streets when somebody pushed past him, causing him to stumble a little. They were gone before he could even hook them for not watching where they were going. This was why he hated the streets. It was a different kind of crowded than the docks were, and people were more careless in the streets because there wasn't any ocean they could be pushed into, which was quite a shame, because Harry was feeling pretty keen on drowning somebody.

Seconds after the first guy ran past him two more guys came running down the street, and one of them barrelled right into Harry, sending them both to the ground.

Harry growled and swiftly moved his hook up against the oaf's neck...his incredibly thick neck. Harry scowled in irritation when he recognized either Gaston Junior or Gaston the Third (he had never been able to tell the difference between the two of them). It didn't matter who it was though, because he equally despised both of them.

"If you don' get off me in the next two seconds, this hook is going straight into your neck." Harry said in a low warning. Gaston whichever it was scowled and stumbled to his feet. He tried to push Harry away from him, but the pirate rolled out of the way, scurried behind the still unsteady oaf, and kicked him down to the ground again. He was going to teach this guy a lesson or two. Maybe by introducing this pretty boy's 'flawless' skin with his hook.

A loud and sharp scream from the next street over made Harry stop before he could even touch his hook against the larger boy's arm. He normally wouldn't be even the least bit bothered by screaming, often he even enjoyed hearing the sound of somebody in pain, especially when he was the cause of that pain. The thing was, he recognized that scream, and it made his blood boil over.

The Gaston under him whined in disappointment. "Aw, Junior's starting without me. He always goes after the runt without me."

Harry clenched his teeth, lifted his hook, and hit Gaston the Third over the top of the head with the handle. He would take care of this idiot later. First though, he had an even bigger idiot to hook.

Harry hurried to his feet and ran swiftly down the street. He jumped over carts and pushed past people before he found the chaos he was looking for. Multiple crates and carts had been pushed to the ground. Harry's attention though was on Gaston Junior. The large boy was standing in front of a slightly smaller and younger boy who was curled up on the ground, whimpering in pain.

Harry wasn't used to seeing his mate so vulnerable, but he instantly recognized Gil. He didn't know what Gaston Junior had done to Gil, but it didn't matter. Older brother or not, nobody hurt Gil, or anybody on their crew, and got away with it.

People were scurrying around, either to get away before they could get hurt, or to get a closer look at the excitement for themselves. Harry shoved past them and, without thinking or hesitating at all, he shoved the point of his hook into the arm that was being drawn back to hit Gil again.

Oh, it was so satisfying to hear somebody else's scream.

Harry pulled his hook out and scowled when he saw the blood on it. He hated getting his hook dirty, but he had to work with what he had. While Gaston Junior continued to scream in pain as he held a hand to his wound, Harry moved towards Gil.

"C'mon, mate." Harry grabbed one of Gil's arms and draped it over his shoulder. "Let's get back to the ship." The ship may be a reminder of Uma, but it was also Harry's home, the one place where nobody who didn't belong there would dare to go. Gil would be safe there.

Even though Harry desperately wanted to hook Gaston Junior, and Gaston the Third while he was at it, he held back because he knew he needed to focus on Gil right now. And besides, Harry knew that if he didn't refrain from attacking them then he would kill them without thinking twice about it. While Harry didn't have a problem with killing the two oafs, he knew that Gil would have a problem with it, because for whatever reason, the blond actually held sentimental fondness towards his brothers. Harry knew that Gil wouldn't forgive him if he killed or even maimed his brothers, so they were off limits...for now.

It was slow work traveling with Gil, because Harry had to practically drag him along, and the boy was larger than he was. The going got much easier when they had reached the next street over and were out of sight and earshot from where they were. Once they got that far Gil instantly began to carry his own weight.

"What...Gil!" Harry scolded. "You still play dead around your brothers?"

"And my father." Gil moaned slightly and curled an arm over his chest. "It makes them stop sooner."

"It also makes you a doormat." Harry scowled. Gil pouted and looked at the ground. "If anybody else picks a fight with you, you eliminate them. If they happen to be related to you, you just roll over and take it like a dog. It's pathetic."

"They're stronger than me." Gil whined, and he was right. His father and two brothers were probably the only three people on the Isle who could easily beat him when it came to brute strength. Throw in Gil's twisted sense of loyalty towards his family and there was no chance he would ever fight against them.

"If you won't stand up to them then you really should just stay away from them." Harry muttered.

"I normally do." Gil protested. "I just...didn't have anywhere else to go."

Harry frowned. The ship should be someplace where Gil should feel safe to go to get away from his family, and he probably would have if Harry hadn't freaked out and forced everybody else away.

"Well, ye do now." Harry muttered. Gil smiled slightly and leaned closer to him.

"So, are you better now?" Gil asked. "I mean, you look better than you did this morning."

"This mornin'?" Harry's eyes widened. "Tha' was you?"

"Well, yeah." Gil looked at Harry curiously. "I thought someone should check up on you, and I was right. You looked like you hadn't slept all week."

"Well, ye look like you've been a punching bag during that time." Harry retorted. Gil laughed slightly, because somehow he found it funny that both of them were just pointing out pathetic truths about the others.

Harry didn't find it funny at all.

"Alrigh', come on." Harry was done with this conversation, and he was glad that they had arrived at the docks by this time. He helped Gil onto their ship and lead him below deck where the other rooms were. Harry brought Gil to his room and sat him down on the bed. Now that they weren't walking Harry could get a proper look at his mate's injuries, and while it was worse than he would like, it was better than he had worried it would be.

"It looks like bruised ribs, a concussion, and a nasty cut at the back of your head." Harry ripped some cloth from his shirt and used it to wrap around the cut to slow the bleeding. "Ye should be fine, but ye gotta take it easy for the next few days."

"Yeah, okay." Gil said much too cheerfully. "Thanks, Captain."

Harry's right eye twitched and he clenched his fists tightly into the bed covers. "Don't call me that!" Harry growled threateningly.

Gil blinked obviously. "Why not?"

"Uma's Captain." Harry shouted.

"But...aren't you the first mate?" Gil asked, as though he really wasn't sure anymore. Harry heaved out a frustrated sigh.

"Yeah, I'm the first mate." Harry glared at his friend. "Not the Captain."

"But doesn't the first mate become the captain when the captain's gone?" Gil asked innocently. Harry blinked as he remembered that, yes, they did. So...for as long as Uma was gone...He was the Captain?

Even though Harry had desperately wanted to be captain when he and Uma had first formed this crew, he didn't think he wanted the position anymore. Uma was the captain, and he didn't think he could ever replace her, and he knew that he didn't want to, but...if Gil saw him as the new captain, at least temporarily, did that mean that the rest of the crew did as well?

If they did, then Harry had no choice but to take up the mantle. They were all still wounded about how Uma had abandoned them, and Harry knew his crew. If they saw him as captain and he refused to take up the position, they would see it as two of their captains abandoning them and would likely leave the pirate business altogether, and Harry didn't want that to happen. They may be rookie pirates, but they were his crew, and they were just starting to shape up. It would be a real shame to ruin things now.

Harry sighed. "Do you know where the others are?"

"The others?" Gil frowned in slight confusion for a second. "Oh, do you mean the crew?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Ay, the crew. Are they around?"

"I think they're all around the docks and Ursala's shop." Gil's eyes brightened. "Do you want me to get them?"

"Ay, go fetch them." Harry nodded. Gil grinned and shot up to his feet, which was really not a very good idea. Harry moved forward to catch Gil when he stumbled slightly because he stood up too quickly, which didn't mix well with his concussion."

"Not so fast." Harry ordered sharply, because he had just barely told him to take it easy. "Just find a crew member, and have them spread the word to meet up at the ship. Then you are to come right back here, understood?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Gil grinned and nodded. He eagerly hurried off to go find the others. Harry just shook his head. He swore that Gil would eagerly jump off a cliff if Harry or Uma told him to. He was completely loyal to them, which Harry figured was a good thing, but it was a little unnerving. True loyalty was a rare thing on the Isle. Most people just kept an eye out for themselves and that was it.

Gil really was just a one of a kind, and he really didn't belong on the Isle. But considering who was king of Auradon, or, more specifically, who had been king of Auradon, Harry didn't think that Gil would necessarily fit in there either. That was part of the reason why Harry wanted to just find some new territory, an unchartered island or even just some private area on the Isle of The Lost, and claim that as their turf. It would be a spot that was all their own, and Mal would have never claimed the area for herself. It would just be theirs.

But they couldn't do that, because Uma didn't just want to not be overshadowed by Mal, she wanted to be better than her, which meant taking everything that had once been hers. Harry didn't completely agree with this plan, but Uma was the Captain, so what she said was what they did.

...Although, for as long as she was gone, Harry was the Captain, which meant that he was the one who got to call all of the shots, including where they should look to expand their territory...perhaps being captain wouldn't be so bad after all.

But he would only do it for just as long as Uma was gone for. And if she never came back, well, he would just have to cross that bridge when he came to it.


	2. Chapter 2

While Gil was gone Harry spent his time doing something that was more important than he would ever care to admit to anybody, even himself...he worked on making himself look presentable.

Harry usually tried to act like he couldn't care less about appearance, but he would be a fool to truly believe that. As Gil constantly seemed to remind him, image is everything. If you look confident, than people will be more inclined to follow you. If you seemed upset, people would know that you had a weakness. And if you looked and acted insane, than people would probably not be all that eager to follow you.

So Harry did what he could to make himself look like the first mate...captain...that he was. He cleaned the blood off his hook, though that was more for preserving it than presentation. He put on his jacket and hat that he hadn't even looked at in days. And, as a final touch, Harry made sure to put on the eyeliner that he always wore in public. He knew that he wore too much, but that was the point. It added to the already wild look in his eyes, though also caused the illusion that the wild look was because of the makeup. Harry wanted to be feared, but he didn't want everybody to see just how out of control he was.

Gil returned a few minutes later, having found Bonny and Desiree on the docks. He had told them to go find the others, and then returned to the ship, just like he was told to do, which Harry was relieved about. He knew that Gil could be a bit dimwitted, and though he was incredibly loyal he didn't always follow directions because he didn't understand them or forgot them. This was why Harry had learned that, for Gil at least, he needed to be very clear with his instructions and yet keep them simple, and only give them when he wanted something to be done and not a few hours before.

"Oh, hey." Gil smiled when he saw Harry. "You're looking normal again. I mean, normal for you, because you've never really looked normal, you-"

"Yes." Harry cut in before Gil could really get started. He sent his friend an annoyed look. "Thank you." Gil quickly got the message that this was one of those times that he was supposed to stop talking.

"So…" Gil sat down on Harry's bed without thinking, but with just a quick look he got back to his feet and leaned against the wall instead. "Any idea what you're gonna say to the crew?"

"Nothin' much." Harry tilted his head slightly and eyed his hook. "I just want to make sure that they all know who's in charge."

"But...you didn't even know who was in charge." Gil pointed out. He shut up, hopefully for longer than five seconds this time, when Harry, who had had more than enough of his input, pointed his hook at the blond, making a very clear threat.

It was only a few minutes later that the boys heard the footsteps of their crew coming onto the ship. Harry glared at Gil, warning him with a look to keep his mouth shut, and went up to the deck to greet their crewmates.

There had been slight chatter going on amongst the crew, but when Harry stepped onto the deck they all fell silent, as well they should. Whether they saw him as their captain or not (and Harry still wasn't entirely sure what he prefered) they had all seen how violent he could be when he was angered, and they gave him the respect and fear that he deserved because of it.

Harry didn't say anything at first, because he honestly wasn't sure what to say. He didn't let it show how unsure he was though. He just let the crew think that he was just sizing them all up, inspecting them. Judging them. This facade of his quickly went out the window when Gil came onto the deck after him.

"So, what's the plan, Captain?" Gil asked innocently, oblivious to the fact that some members of the crew were eyeing Harry the same why he had been trying to eye them, as though they weren't sure whether or not he was actually worth listening to without Uma around.

"Captain?" Gonzo asked, looking confused.

"So it's true." Jonas scoffed "You're decided to promote yourself." Harry glared at him. He should have known that any trouble or insubordination from the crew would come from this guy. Jonas was slightly older than the rest of them, and so he felt like he was better than them to. He had respected Uma enough as Captain...barely. Harry could remember a number of times when he had seen a rebellious, traitorous look in Jonas' eyes.

Harry had thought that Jonas had respected him as well, but apparently he only respected him as first mate. If he wanted Jonas to respect him as captain, than he would have to earn it again.

Gil frowned slightly at Jonas. "He didn't promote himself." Gil said simply. "He was first mate, which means that when the captain's gone, he's captain. Those are the rules."

"Well, of course you would care about the rules." Jonas scowled as he muttered under his breath. "Auradon scum"

"Hey!" Harry shouted, which caused everybody, Jonas included, to flinch. Harry glared at the older boy and began to walk towards him until they were standing face to face. "There's no need for that kind of talk." He said conversationally, though there was a definite bite to his tone. "Whether you like it or not, there are rules on this ship, and they will be followed." Without warning Harry moved his hook against Jonas' throat and pushed just hard enough to begin drawing blood. "Am I understood?"

Jonas hissed in a harsh breath as he instinctively lifted his head away from the cold metal of Harry's hook. "Understood...Captain." And just by looking in his eyes Harry could tell that Jonas knew that he was talking about the spoken and unspoken rules.

It didn't matter how often they all thought that Gil acted more like an Auradon prince than an Isle of The Lost pirate. None of them, not even Harry or Uma, were allowed to say it allowed. It may be an unspoken rule, but it was a rule nonetheless.

Now that Jonas seemed to have remembered all of this, Harry was satisfied...for now. "Good." Harry smiled wickedly and patted Jonas' cheek before turning his attention to the rest of the crew, who were all watching him even more cautiously than they have before. "Are there any more questions?" Harry asked in a tone that clearly said 'there had better not be, or I'll hook you all'.

"Oh, I have one." Gil said, which caused most of the crew members to hiss at him to shut up. He had never been very good at reading the unspoken messages in people's voices. "If you're captain, than who's the first mate?"

Harry blinked. He had thought that that answer had been obvious. "You are." He said simply. Apparently it hadn't been as obvious as he had thought it was. Everybody, especially Gil, just stared at him as though they couldn't believe that they had heard him right. Jonas (of course) was the first to break the silence.

"Gil?!" Jonas was absolutely infuriated. He pointed at Gil almost accusingly. "You want this...this idiot to be your first mate?" Jonas let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "You really must be insane."

Not even a second after those words had left Jonas' mouth Harry felt a slight pressure and then loss of pressure at his left hip. It felt as though his sword was being unsheathed, but unless his right hand was moving without his knowledge, he wasn't the one grabbing the sword. An instant later his sword was being pointed steadily at Jonas' neck, directly where the little wound that Harry had given him earlier was. And the one wielding the sword was none other than Gil, who looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him look before.

"You do not get to speak to your captain like that." Gil said in a dark tone that did not suit him at all. He sounded much more like his father or Harry than he did like himself. It was slightly unnerving...and yet also very impressive. "Now apologize before I shove this sword right through your neck."

"Alright, Gil." Harry put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "That's enough."

"No, it's not." Gil insisted as he looked at Harry with wide eyes. "He can't just get away with insulting you like that." So, Gil was just fine with Jonas insulting him, but the second he said something the least bit insulting about Harry he leapt to the offensive. That was just like him.

"I think my honor will survive." Harry chuckled slightly, because this side of Gil just amused him. He put his hook against the sword that Gil was using and forced him to lower it. "Come, now, we don't want to get any blood on the deck. We just had it cleaned."

Gil pouted and lowered the sword completely. "...Can I drag him onto the dock and then gut him?" Gil asked so eagerly that Harry openly laughed. Oh, he just loved this side of Gil.

Maybe later." Harry nodded at Gonzo and Bonny to take Jonas off the ship (Gil wasn't the only one who had to be 'banished' every once and awhile, he was just the one that it happened to most frequently). Harry would deal with Jonas later. He wouldn't kill him, because as fun as that would be their crew was rather short handed and they needed all the members they could get. Still, a little punishment would be in order.

That could wait until later though. At the moment Harry just wanted to enjoy the still stunned looks on the crews faces. They all seemed to have realized, though Harry knew that there never should have been any doubt, that in his own way Gil was a force that shouldn't be messed with.

"Does anybody else question my decision on who should be first mate?" Harry asked. Nobody said anything and a few people quickly shook their heads. "I thought not." He then draped his arm over Gil's shoulder and headed for the cabin. The anger was almost completely gone from Gil's eyes, now replaced by blank confusion.

"So...wait, why am I the first mate?" Gil asked. He then blinked as though he remembered something and he held out Harry's sword to him. "Oh, I took this...sorry."

"It's fine." Harry took back his sword and sheathed it again. "And you're the first mate because I say you are." That was all that Gil, or anybody else, needed to know. Harry wasn't about to tell them that he had chosen Gil because of his loyalty. That would sound to much like Harry saying that he had chosen Gil because they were friends, and then people would begin to think that he was weak.

"Oh." Gil nodded as though he understood, though Harry knew that he really didn't. Gil just didn't want to seem dumb by admitting that he didn't know something. He did this fairly often. "Okay." Well, at least Gil was satisfied with Harry's answer. And if the rest of the crew wasn't...well, that was their own problem. They would soon learn that Gil was much more than the not very intelligent muscle. Just like they had learned that Harry was more than just the insane middle child in his family and Uma was more than just the girl who was always beaten by Mal.

All three of them were much more than what everybody else thought they were, and one day soon Harry would make them realize it. One day, the world would see exactly what the three of them were, and they would all regret having left them behind. Even if Uma had given up on this dream, Harry hadn't. He knew that there was a place out there where Gil could be happy without being ridiculed, Harry wouldn't have to worry about falling into the darkness of his own mind, and Uma would be free from Mal's shadow forever. There had to be a place out there where they could belong, and they were going to find it one day.

Harry was going to make sure of it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because a couple of people asked about this when I first posted this story on fanfiction.net, I'm going to say right now that Uma is not going to be a big part of this story. It's focused on Gil and Harry. She will be in it later, but even when she comes in she won't have that much focus, so don't go asking for it.

Being Captain was much more difficult than Harry had ever thought it would be. He had known that the captain was the one who was in charge and got to call all the shots, but he hadn't ever stopped to think that the captain was also the person that the crew looked to for everything. And, on the Isle of The Lost, where food was scarce enough as it was and his crew was made up of kids who looked for any chance they could to get away from their homes, which just so happened to be where a decent supply of food might be, his biggest task was keeping his crew fed.

And as impossible a feat as it sounded, it was much harder than it sounded. To be fair though, at least Harry now knew that the next time he went looking for food for his crew, he wouldn't bring Gil along. They were close friends, and Harry liked Gil better than he did anybody else on the island at the moment, but that boy was just not very good at thieving.

Gil would stand right next to a food cart as he glanced around suspiciously to make sure that nobody else was watching. No matter how many times Harry tried to tell him, it just couldn't seem to sink into Gil's thick skull that the only person he would have to worry about being caught by was the cart owner, who would only be able to tell that he was going to steal something because he was glancing around so suspiciously.

Gil always got caught, and then it was up to Harry to drop what he was doing so he could get them both out of there. They had no choice but to flee with what little food they had to try again somewhere else. Because of this the gathering went extremely slowly. It also didn't help that Gil just happened to be hungry himself and he wouldn't stop snacking on their bread.

And it was absolutely infuriating to deal with.

Harry tried to be as patient as he could, but after fifteen minutes and seven different food carts he knew that this couldn't go on. So Harry left the food that they had been able to gather thus far with Gil and went to go get the rest. He knew that he could trust Gil to not lose the stale bread and rotten fruit that they had found, because as horrible as he was at stealing, Gil was surprisingly good at preventing others from stealing from him.

With Gil watching the food and Harry working solo, thinks actually went much quicker. Harry on his own was a lot more subtle than he was with clumsy Gil at his side. And in the event that Harry was caught by the owner of the food cart, he could easily intimidate them away with just a simple flash of his hook and a small psychotic grin. Within just five minutes Harry had managed to get enough food to more than double what he and Gil had previously found. Feeling rather pleased with himself, Harry went back to where he had left Gil, and his jaw dropped at the sight that greeted him there.

Gil was still there to the side of the street, not a foot away from where Harry had left him. There were still bags at his feet, so that much was the same. What wasn't the same though was just how full the bags were, and just how many young children were crowded around Gil. This in and of itself wasn't all that surprising, because the children on the isle tended to naturally flock to Gil, who had a friendly enough demeanor that they didn't feel threatened, but he was also large enough to scare away any other potential threats. Harry was always annoyed whenever he found Gil surrounded by kids, but it never truly angered him until now.

"And what, exactly, is goin' on here?" Harry asked in a low tone as he approached the small group. The children, who all feared Harry just as much as they liked Gil, scattered when they saw him. This would normally be exactly what he would want, except for the fact that every single one of those brats was holding a loaf of bread or a small bag of fruit...their food!

Harry knew that it was a lost cause to go after the little thieves, so he turned straight to Gil, his eyes burning in fury. "Would ye mind tellin' me just what all of that was?" Harry asked, just moments away from completely losing his temper. Gil must've noticed the signs of danger for once, because his ever present grin fell away.

"I was just...heh." Gil let out a nervous little chuckle. "You know, it's kinda a funny story…" Gill sighed and lowered his eyes. "...I gave them our food."

Harry had thought so. Still, it didn't make hearing it any less infuriating. "Why would you do something as stupid as that?" Harry shouted, though he didn't miss the way that Gil flinched slightly. "We needed that food."

"But they did too." Gil lifted his eyes to look at Harry. "They're just kids. They don't know how to get their own food like we do. We can easily just get more."

Harry was absolutely fuming. How was it that Gil made it sound like stealing on the Isle, where the vendors had people steal from them everyday, so they knew exactly how to look for it, was simple? It was anything but! Harry only knew what he was doing because he was a pirate and stealing and plundering was what pirates did.

(And, when he was younger, Harry also followed Harriet around and watched Jay closely, because those two were masters at the art of stealing, and he knew he would have to learn from the best. Not that he would ever tell either of them that.)

"No, we can't easily get more." Harry clenched his hook tightly. "There is not an unlimited supply of food on the isle."

Gil frowned slightly. "I know that." He pouted. Gil hated it when people implied, or, more often, outright said that he didn't understand anything.

Harry groaned and shoved the food that he had just barely grabbed into Gil's arms. "Try not to lose it this time." He warned. Harry knew that they would need to get more food, and he really didn't want to be out on the streets all day. Gil looked at the ground and silently followed after him. Harry knew that Gil would be silently pouting for the rest of the day, but at least he probably wouldn't try anything else absolutely infuriating.

As much as Harry wanted to keep a very close eye on Gil, it was practically impossible to steal anything with a large, pouty, and extremely noticeable boy behind him. So Harry had no choice but to leave him again, with very, very stern instructions to stay put and not lose their food.

Harry was gone for just a few minutes. When he returned he was relieved to see that Gil wasn't being swarmed by children. He was by himself...well, mostly by himself. While there weren't any kids near him, there was a small and battered looking gray cat at his feet. And, of course, Gil was feeding it crumbs from their food supply, because Gil was apparently incapable of keeping his food for himself.

Harry sighed. He was just too tired of all of this to bring himself to be fully angry about it. Now he was just mildly annoyed. "Gil, what are you doing?" Harry asked.

Gil looked away from the cat, a guilty expression on his face. He hid the loaf of bread in his hands behind his back, as though that would somehow make it so that Harry wouldn't have seen it in the first place. "I was...uh…"

"Feeding the cat?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

Gil's eyes brightened slightly. "Yeah, I was feeding the cat." Gil pocketed the loaf and bent down to pick up the cat, who snuggled up against him. "He was hungry."

Harry groaned. "Our crew is going to be hungry is we don't get enough food." Why couldn't Gil understand this? "We can't afford to just give away food to brats and filthy beasts just because they can't get some for themselves."

Gil's face fell into a disappointed frown. He looked down at the cat in his arms, which was now licking his fingers, probably to try to get any remaining crumbs. "What if I just give him some of my rations?"

Harry let out a frustrated sigh and put a hand to his head. "You're supposed to be the muscle of our crew, which means that if anybody needs to have full rations, it's you."

"Oh." Gil tilted his head slightly in confusion. "...really?"

"Yes." Harry groaned. "You can't just give the cat all your food."

"He's right, you know." A cocky, annoying voice cut in. Harry turned to glare at the fool who apparently thought that it was okay to cut into their conversation. His glare only deepened when he saw a teenager with a black and white mohawk watching them with an amused expression on his face. Harry didn't know the kid personally, but Bonny and Desiree were obsessed enough with the lead singer of the only band on the isle that he knew exactly who Diego De Vil was when he saw him.

"Do ye mind?" Harry growled at the wannabe heartthrob. "We were having a private conversation."

"Well, considering you're talking about my cat, I think I have a right to join in." Diego approached Gil and began to hold a hand out towards the cat, which just hissed and scratched at him. "Ow." Diego drew his hand back, which was now bleeding slightly. He glared at the cat, who glared right back at him. "Demon spawn."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Your cat?" Neither the animal nor the human acted like they even got along with each other.

"Well, she's my cousin's cat." Diego clarified. "I'm watching her while he's gone."

"Gone?" Gil blinked in confusion. "Where'd he go?" Harry understood Gil's confusion. After all, there really wasn't anywhere that somebody could leave to on the isle, and there was a very limited number of kids who currently weren't in Auradon. Still, surely even Gil must have noticed the family resemblance.

"He's Carlos' cousin." Harry reminded Gil impatiently.

"Oh." Gil nodded in understanding. He grinned at Diego. "Yeah, we saw Carlos just a few days ago." Gil turned towards Harry. "Didn't we?" Harry just gritted his teeth. He was not happy with the reminder. And it had not been just a few days ago. It had been nearly two weeks.

"Yep, we all heard about that." Diego still just sounded amused, which infuriated Harry. He had known Gil for long enough to become fairly familiar with that tone. It was the tone that one used when they thought that Gil was an idiot, and they found the whole thing funny somehow. But they thought that they would be 'nice' and not outright say it. Their tone just said it all for them. "There's also word going around that Uma ditched you guys. Is that true?"

Alright, that was it. Harry had had enough of this guy and wanted nothing more than to hook him straight through that pretty little neck of his. See how well he sang without his vocal chords. Harry moved to do just that, but Gil adjusted his position so he was standing between him and Diego. Harry just wasn't sure whether this shift was because Gil could tell that he was about to lose it, or if he just wanted to be in a more comfortable position. Whatever the case, it was annoying.

"She didn't ditch us." Gil said matter-of-factly. "She's gonna come back." Gil was probably the only person on the Isle who could still say that with complete confidence.

Diego got a strange look in his eyes, and Harry wasn't entirely sure what it meant, and he honestly didn't care. All that he cared about at the moment was this arrogant boy who didn't know when to keep his mouth shut had forced himself into their conversation, and Harry wanted to know why.

"What are you doin' here, De Vil?" Harry asked boredly in a tone that clearly said that if it wasn't a good reason, than he had best get a move on.

"I'm just getting Beelzebub." Diego said. "Then I'll be out of your hair."

"Beelze...huh?" Gil blinked in confusion. Harry sighed impatiently.

"The cat, Gil." Harry said shortly. "That's her name."

"Oh." Gil looked down at the cat. "That's a silly name. You can't even say it."

"It's a perfectly normal name." Diego said irritably, which told Harry that even though she was Carlos' cat, the older boy had had a hand in naming her. "Just because you can't say it…"

"Alright, that's enough." Harry grabbed the cat out of Gil's hands, and didn't bothering being all too gentle about it either, and held her out to Diego. "If ye want the cat, then just take her and leave."

"Gladly." Diego went to grab Beelzebub, but, once again, she scratched out at him. This time though her claws also hit Harry, and he dropped her in surprise. The cat recovered within a second and scurried back to hide behind Gil's legs.

"I don't think she wants to go with you." Gil said unhelpfully.

"She's been like this since Carlos left." Diego sighed and glared at the cat irritably. "The little beast hates me, and the feeling is mutual."

"So get rid of her." Harry said simply. It was so obvious to him.

"She's not my pet." Diego scowled at Harry. "She belongs to my cousin."

"Well, he's not here now, is he?" Harry pointed out. "And let's face it, if your cousin cared a lot about something, then the pup would have had it brought to Auradon by now." Harry smirked at Diego, who was glaring daggers at him. "Wouldn't he have?" That murderous look in Diego's eyes showed that he knew that Harry hadn't just been speaking about the cat.

Gil, who was completely oblivious to the rising tension, picked up the cat again and grinned when it climbed up onto his shoulders. "If you don't want to take care of her, than I can…"

"No!" Harry shouted suddenly. Gil looked up at him with wide, somewhat startled eyes. "Ye are not keepin the cat."

"Why not?" Gil asked.

"Yeah, why not?" Diego looked at the way that Beelzebub was sitting contently on Gil's shoulders.

"Because we don't have the food!" Harry said harshly. He could barely feed his own crew, let alone a mangy animal that should be more than capable enough to take care of itself but choose to rely on other people instead.

"You're still on about that?" Diego asked, as though food and not starving to death was something that just wasn't worth worrying about. "Hey, if that's your only problem, I think I have a solution for you." Diego turned and ducked into a nearby alleyway without explaining anything else. Harry and Gil stared at each other before Gil shrugged and went to follow him. Harry groaned, but he went after the two of them.

Diego led the two of them into an old, boarded up building that wasn't as abandoned as it looked on the outside. Harry could tell just with one look inside that this was where Diego and his band practiced, and where he called home in between gigs.

"Well, this place is a bit of a fixer upper." Harry commented as he caught sight of about a dozen holes in the roof. This place was a dump, and not in the good way.

"Yeah, that's rich, coming from the pirate whose ship is permanently docked." Diego retorted as he went towards a corner of the single room and grabbed a decently sized sack that was filled with something. Diego handed the bag to Gil. "That should probably help your little food issue."

Gil frowned curiously and looked into the bag. His eyes widened comically when he saw what was in it. "Whoa."

"What?" Harry looked over Gil's shoulder and was surprised to see that the bag was full of food. And, by the looks of things, it was the rare decent quality stuff too. Bread that was only a day old. Fruit that was just slightly overly ripe. All of it was stuff that wouldn't quite meet up to Auradonian standards, but was twenty times better than the average food on the Isle.

"Being a rockstar has a few perks." Diego said with a smirk. "You can have that food, if you want, and feel free to come back for more when you need to. I always have plenty to spare."

"Really?" Gil grinned.

"Really." Diego nodded. "I just want you to do one thing for me in return."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the teenager. "I knew there was a catch."

"Trust me, I'm not asking anything from you." Diego sent Harry an irritated look before turning to Gil. "I'm not asking a lot. Just...keep doing what you've been doing. Give food to those who don't have as much."

"What?!" Harry couldn't believe his ears. "Why would ye want him to do that?" Harry had heard that Diego was a part of that anti-heroes club that wasn't nearly as much of a secret as the goody-two-shoes seemed to think it was, but this just seemed ridiculous.

"Because if it wasn't for guys like Gil, I probably wouldn't have a cousin today." Diego said, and he didn't sound the least bit embarrassed about his blatant show of familial affection. Harry wasn't all that surprised to hear that the De Vil pup had gotten some help when it came to getting food.

Gil grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I can do that." Harry knew that Gil was actually more than happy to give away his food to a couple of begging children, or even adults, and now he didn't have a reason to not do it.

"In that case, then the food, and the little demon cat, are yours." Diego leaned back against the wall. "But, if you ever see Carlos, I don't think he would mind if you gave his cat back to him."

Gil frowned slightly. "Why would I see Carlos? He's in Auradon."

Diego sent Harry a strange look, and this time he knew exactly what it meant. Like Harry, Uma, and half of their crew, Diego had recognized something in Gil that just didn't belong on the Isle of The Lost. In the past this strange trait was just something that made Gil a bit of an outcast on the Isle, even if he didn't realize it. Now though, with King Ben's latest efforts to bring even more children from the Isle to Auradon, it meant that Gil actually had a chance to get out of here.

It wasn't a large chance, because the king was only bringing over people that Mal's gang recommended, and there was no way that any of them would even consider to have anyone on Harry's crew to be 'worthy'. It was a chance nonetheless, and it was one that Harry knew that Gil deserved.

Harry didn't necessarily want Gil to go to Auradon. He didn't think that the blond would entirely fit in there either, because while he may not be a villain, he wasn't really much of a hero either.

"Well, this has been a lovely chat, but we've got to go now." Harry said. There wasn't really anywhere that they had to go, but he really didn't want to be around Diego anymore, because that guy was seriously getting on his nerves.

"Okay." Gil agreed. He closed the bag of food that Diego had handed to him, shifted his shoulders slightly so that Beelzebub could have a more stable place to stand, and left without saying another word.

"So...Strong and silent type, huh?" DIego said teasingly, clearly talking about Gil. Harry scowled at him.

"Not another word from you." Harry followed Gil out back into the streets and grabbed the bag of food that he had gathered earlier that Gil had carelessly left in the street when they had followed Diego. It was quite miraculous that nobody else had taken the bag while they were gone, and Harry wasn't about to take any more chances. They needed to get this food back to the ship before they lost any more food.

"Alright, let's go." Harry lead the way back to the ship. He sent a glaring warning at Gil. "And that beast is your responsibility. If it falls of the ship and drowns…"

"She won't." Gil swore. He shifted his grip on his bag so that he could hold it with just a single hand. With his other hand Gil reached up and scratched the cat's neck. "I'll keep an eye on Bee...Beel…" Gil frowned and Harry rolled his eyes.

"You're going to have to do something about that name." Harry said, because he was not going to be the one stuck with teaching Gil how to pronounce the cat's overly complicated name.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter includes some thoughts on animal cruelty and some violence, but none of it will be all that descriptive. I'm just warning you, in case that's not something you want to read.

Harry had almost forgotten what his life had been like before it had centered around Uma. He knew that she grounded him, but he had almost forgotten just how far gone he could be sometimes. He always had a blood lust that was constantly begging to be satisfied, but even by himself Harry could usually hold back the urges if he needed to.

...usually.

There were some days though where Harry felt like he wasn't even in control of his own body. He needed to go out and hook somebody...everybody. Uma, whether she knew it or not, helped him to control himself. She was the captain. No matter how far gone Harry was, he always had the sense to know that Uma was the captain. He was her first mate, which meant that he needed to do what she said, whether he wanted to or not.

The problem was, Uma wasn't there. She had left, and there was nobody around to ground him. Nobody that he would listen to if they told him to calm down and control his urges. It was just his responsibility to not let things get too far...and Harry had never been very good at self restraint.

When Harry woke up one morning with the itch to kill, not just maim or scare somebody that annoyed him, he knew that he was in trouble. His head was pounding and even though the day had just started he already felt like he was standing at the edge of an abyss and the smallest little annoyance would push him completely over the edge.

Mrroww.

Like the incessant meowing of Gil's infuriating little creature. Harry wasn't an animal person, and he had never been very happy with Gil's decision to take in the De Vil pup's little beast. He usually tried to avoid the creature, but the little demon spawn seemed to have noticed that Gil was the one who gave her food, and he was always around Harry. So, in the cat's mind, if she couldn't find Gil, then he was in Harry's room, even though that was rarely the case.

This wasn't the first time that Harry had woken to find the cat just outside his room, looking for Gil. With the mood he was in that day though, Harry thought that it was a pretty safe to say that it would be the last.

That little beast always got on Harry's nerves. He pushed aside his feelings of mild annoyance for the cat for Gil's sake, but the blond boy wasn't around. Harry felt a little pathetic for getting himself so worked up over such a small creature, but he couldn't help it. With just a single meow from the cat Harry felt all the pent up frustrations and annoyances towards the creature build up within him until he only had just a single thought in his mind.

He wanted that cat gone.

Harry growled to himself and picked up his hook from where he had placed it the night before. He stumbled across the chambers to the door. He could feel his body shaking, which was just a sign that he didn't have as much control as he probably should. He couldn't bring himself to care though, not when the cat was just a few feet away from him.

Harry slowly opened the door. The cat stopped meowing the second it heard the door opening, but once she saw that it was Harry who had come to greet her and not Gil she hissed viciously. She may just be a stupid beast, but Harry knew that the cat hated him just as much as he hated her.

At least it made what he was going to do very easy to justify to himself.

The cat let out another hiss when Harry stepped towards her. When he didn't stop she scratched out at his leg. Her claws were extremely sharp, and Harry could feel that his scratches were bleeding. That little beast had dared to attack him.

If Harry had been annoyed and angry before, he was absolutely furious now. Nobody was allowed to harm him. Not his rivals. Not his father, and not some bloody little cat.

"Yer gonna regret that, demon spawn." Harry growled as he lunged forward and picked up the cat by the scruff of its neck. He pressed his hook against the cat's fur. He didn't make it bleed (yet) but the cat was already yowling in a panic. "Gil's not around to save you." Because Harry knew that his friend was the only one who would even bother to care. But, for once, the blond wasn't around.

"Harry!" Gil's panic filled voice rang in Harry's ears. For a moment he wondered if he was imagining it (that kind of thing happened sometimes), but when he was harshly tackled from the side Harry knew that Gil really was there.

It looked like he had spoken too soon.

Gil's tackle sent both teenagers sprawling to the ground. Harry lost his grip on the cat, which hissed and ran off before he could try to attack it again. Harry tried to move to go after it, but Gil held him down.

"What are you doing?" Gil asked as he tightened his grip on Harry. The pirate did not appreciate being held down, and he could feel his anger rising. What little control he had had before was steadily seeping away.

"Get off, mate." Harry growled lowly. His tone would have sent most anybody else cowering in fear, but not Gil. The blond boy just tightened his grip on Harry even more, which didn't feel very pleasant when Gil's arms were pulled around Harry's throat. Any tighter and he would be choking him.

"Not gonna happen, Harry." Gil said in a serious voice that Harry just wasn't used to hearing from the usually kind hearted teen. Gil meant business. Unfortunately, so did Harry.

"I said get off!" Harry got his left arm free from underneath Gil's leg, and he may or may not have scratched him with his hook while doing so. At the moment, he didn't even care enough to notice. Harry then, acting completely on instinct and without thinking at all, slashed his hook at the one thing that was holding him down and holding him back. Namely, Gil.

The blond boy let out a sharp cry of pain that both thrilled Harry, and absolutely terrified him. Gil let go of Harry, and the pirate took the opportunity to push him off of him. Gil held both of his hands over the right side of his face, but Harry could still see blood through his fingertips...a lot of it. Once again, Harry felt equal amounts of excitement and fear. Excitement because it was always a thrill for Harry to see that he had been the cause of someone else's pain, especially when he was in this kind of mood. Fear because the person that he had hurt was Gil, and no matter what Harry's state of mind was, he knew that it was not okay for Gil to be hurt. Ever.

Harry didn't do well with conflicting emotions. Both emotions fought to be the most prominent, and it just made his head pound in a way that made it impossible to think. With every second that Harry saw Gil curled up away from him, whimpering in pain, even though it was clear that he was trying really hard not to, it just made Harry's headache worse and he couldn't handle it.

He couldn't handle seeing Gil.

Not knowing what else to do, Harry turned and retreated back into his cabin. He wasn't usually the kind of person who ran and hid like a child, but he knew that he needed to get out of there before he did something that he would really regret.

Harry collapsed on his bed and just blocked everything else out. He still held his hook, because it would feel wrong to not be holding it at that point. He refused to look at it though, because he was afraid if he did he would either end up admiring how beautiful the bright red blood on it was compared to the silver color of the hook, or he would get sick to his stomach at the reminder of what he had done.

Harry didn't know whether he had fallen asleep or just became unaware of his surroundings, but at some point he came back to reality. Harry was relieved to find that his head wasn't pounding as much as before and he could actually think clearly. When Harry glanced at his left hand, which was stiff from clutching at the hook for who knows how long, he saw saw the now dried blood on his hook.

Harry's first thought when he saw the blood was that it would be a pain to clean off. When he remembered just whose blood it was though Harry felt sick to his stomach with guilt and worry. On the positive side, that meant that he wasn't out of control insane anymore. On the negative side…he had hurt Gil!

Suddenly the only thought in Harry's head was that he needed to find Gil. He wasn't sure what he would do when he did find him. A part of Harry was afraid that he would see Gil and just get angry all over again, that he would twist the situation to make it all Gil's fault. A smaller, but still intense part of Harry wanted to apologize (which he never did). Mostly Harry just wanted to make sure that Gil was okay and then pretend that none of this had ever happened in the first place.

Hook still in his hand, because even then Harry couldn't bare to let it go, the young pirate made his way to the deck of the ship. Upon getting outside Harry was surprised to see that it was well into the night. Last he was aware, it was first thing in the morning. A whole day had come and gone without him realizing it.

Harry tried not to think about that too much though. He focused on searching the deck for Gil. He saw Bonny and Desiree messing around with the rigging (those girls always had a fascination with them). Gonzo and Jonas were just on the deck arguing about something or another, but when they saw Harry they both stopped in the middle of what they had been saying.

"Captain, you're...up." Gonzo sounded a little nervous, and Harry thought he could understand why.

"Where's Gil?" Harry asked.

Gonzo flinched slightly at the question, and didn't seem in a big hurry to answer. After a moment Jonas sighed and spoke up. "Last I heard he's at the west docks."

Harry should have known that that was where Gil had gone. It was where he always went when he was 'banished' for a few hours. He had probably thought that, because Harry had hurt him and then left without saying another word, that he didn't want him around. Gil may be a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but he was getting pretty good at realizing when he wasn't wanted around.

Harry narrowed his eyes at his crew. "And none of you thought to bring him back."

"We tried." Gonzo protested. "He wouldn't listen to us."

For a wild, frightening moment Harry considered that Gil hadn't come back because he didn't want to. That Harry had finally pushed him too far. After thinking for a moment though Harry realized that Gil probably just thought that he wasn't allowed back yet. Harry had always been the one to fetch him when it was time to come back, so Gil had probably gotten it into his head that if it wasn't Harry getting him, then it wasn't time to come back.

Which meant that Harry had to go and face his friend.

Harry ignored the slightly judgemental and extremely nervous looks on his crew's faces. He would deal with them later. At the moment though he had to go and find his first mate. Harry made his way off the ship and immediately headed for the west docks. It was probably the most rundown and filthy place on all of the Isle of the Lost, which was really saying something. Even by their standards it wasn't a suitable place to live, but because of how abandoned it was it did make for a decent place to go when you just needed a few undisturbed hours.

As usual, the west docks appeared pretty much empty. Harry saw a couple of people out of the corner of his eye, but they all scurried off back into the shadows when they saw him coming. Harry paid them no mind though, because he knew that none of them was who he was looking for.

Harry continued down the docks until he found himself at a familiar looking place at the edge of the west docks. It was right near the water's edge, and, by west dock standards, wasn't too bad on the filth level. It still stunk to high heaven though.

Harry immediately saw a small makeshift shelter made of a few old boxes and crates. Harry saw a figure in the sorry excuse for shelter, and, because Gil had been the one to build the thing, he immediately knew who it was.

"Gil." Harry called out to his friend. He frowned when the figure didn't come out, or even move at all. Had Gil just fallen asleep here again? "C'mon, Gil, it's time to go back to the ship." Still no response.

Harry frowned and went closer to the shelter of boxes. He crouched down to see inside properly, and felt his stomach churn unpleasantly at what he saw.

Gil was indeed the one who was in there, as Harry had known he would be. By the looks of things he was, in fact, asleep. Harry had the horrible feeling though that he hadn't just dozed off because he was tired.

Gil looked horrible. He was sweating quite a bit, and yet shivering slightly at the same time. Gil's cheeks were flushed, and it didn't take a doctor to know that he had a fever. When Harry got his first proper look at the cut on Gil's face, it was easy to see why.

The bleeding had stopped (thankfully), but the cut still looked terrible. First off, even if it wasn't all that deep, it was long. The cut went all the way from the bottom of Gil's right ear, across his entire cheek, and even nicked a bit of the corner of his mouth. As if how big the cut was wasn't bad enough, Harry could also see yellow pus in the cut, and the skin around it looked even more angry and red than the rest of his face.

Gil's cut was infected, which wasn't exactly a surprise. Infections were an extremely common thing on the Isle. Harry just hadn't seen one this bad before. Or maybe it just looked worse because it was Gil who was infected.

Harry knew only one thing for sure. Gil's cut needed to be properly taken care of (or, as properly as it could be taken care of), and he needed to get away from the bacteria ridden docks.

Harry grabbed Gil's arms and pulled him out into the open. He then draped Gil's arms over his shoulders and maneuvered his position so that the blonde was leaning against his back. Careful to not let Gil fall back, Harry slowly stood up. With Gil on his back and Harry's arms wrapped around his friend's legs to support him, the pirate began the journey back to the ship.

Because Gil was larger than Harry was, the going was slow and awkward. Harry adapted quickly though, and he was able to get Gil back to the ship with little trouble. He did have to make a few detours or pause for a few moments once or twice, because Harry really didn't want anybody else to see them.

This only slightly delayed them, and before too long Harry was carrying Gil across the gangway. The rest of his crew had anxiously been awaiting his return. Though Harry knew that most of them would be too cowardly to admit it, he knew that they were concerned about Gil, just like he was.

"Get some fresh water." Harry ordered Jonas and Desiree. For once Jonas didn't question his order, he just followed it. Bonny also left the ship, and Harry knew she was going to try to find some antibiotics. They were rare on the Isle, but sometimes one could get lucky.

Harry made his way to his own cabin, because it was the most comfortable sleeping quarters on the ship. With Gonzo's help Harry lowered Gil down on his bed. Harry knew that Gonzo saw the cut on Gil's face, and it didn't take a genius to know who had caused it, but he didn't say anything.

"C'mon, mate." Harry untied Gil's bandana and brushed the stray blond hair away from his face. Gil whimpered quietly at even that slight touch and he shied away from it. Harry pulled his hand back as though he had been burned.

"...'arry?" Gil muttered. Harry felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest.

"Yeah, mate, it's me." Harry assured him. "Yer, gonna be okay."

"...M'sorry." Gil whimpered. "M'ssed up. Always m'ss up."

Harry felt his blood run cold. "No." He said sternly, though he knew that Gil wouldn't listen to him. Harry was rarely able to convince Gil that something he had believed for years, like Uma should be called Shrimpy or that he was nothing more than a worthless screw up, wasn't true. Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to convince Gil that this whole situation wasn't his fault. Gil wouldn't listen if Harry tried to say that he was mostly to blame, while the rest of the blame fell on that demonic cat.

"I-it's okay." Harry said to Gil, because if he couldn't convince him that the mess wasn't his fault, then he would convince him that everything was okay. That no irreparable damage had been done. "Everythin's fine. I'm not mad anymore."

Gil smiled slightly, even though Harry knew that it probably hurt a lot. That was just like him though, to just smile his way through the pain. It didn't matter how hurt Gil was, he would just smile and shrug it all off. He didn't even consider holding a grudge against the person who had hurt him. Gil just moved on with his life.

He really was too pure for this place.

As easily as Gil would be able to move on, Harry wouldn't be able to find it so easy. Just from looking at the cut on Gil's face Harry could tell that even when it healed it was still going to scar horribly. Gil, one of the Isle's genuine 'pretty boys', and someone who had been raised to always remember the importance of one's appearance, would forever have an ugly scar on the side of his face.

And it was all Harry's fault.

"I-I'm sorry." Harry muttered the forbidden words for probably the first time in his life. "I'm so, so sorry."


	5. Chapter 5

It was one of the rare nice days on the Isle of The Lost...or, at least, Gil thought so. He was sure that if anybody from Auradon saw the overcast skies, and felt the chilly breeze then they would think that it was a gloomy day. Maybe it was gloomy, but considering most of the days on the Isle were just plain old depressing, gloomy was a pretty nice step up from that. And, really, the day looked much worse than it was.

The sun wasn't shining, though Gil didn't think he could remember a single day where the sun had shone on the Isle. But the air was warm, but not in a stifling kind of way. It was in a nice feeling kind of way. And the gentle ocean breeze only made it feel even better.

On days like this Gil prefered to stay on the dock of the ship and stare out at the ocean. It always made him feel like the world was much larger and much nicer than just the small, gloomy island. On that particular day though, he couldn't do that. Gil had somewhere else he had to be.

Gil sat on a crate right near the water at Goblin Wharf. The shipment of supplies from Auradon was coming in that day, and Gil was hoping to find something there. Usually nobody except for the goblins who worked there were allowed at these docks. Gil was one of the few exceptions though, because the goblins knew that he wouldn't try to get first dibs on any of the food or supplies that they brought over. They knew that he was only there for something that only he really cared about.

(And he always volunteered to bring supplies off the ship, and was one of the only people on the Isle who actually treated the goblins civilly, so they really didn't mind having him around.)

While Gil waited for the shipment to come in he took his harmonica out of his pocket and practiced it. He wasn't very good at playing said instrument, but ever since he had heard Harry play a complicated sounding song on the piano, he had wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Harry had given him his old harmonica, because he said that it was one of the easiest ones to play, but much harder to master than other people seemed to appreciate. And it was pretty hard. Gil had been trying to figure out the harmonica for a few months, and he could still only get a few notes.

Gil played the old instrument for a few minutes before he realized that he had an audience.

"'S that you, Gilli?" One of the goblins, though Gil wasn't entirely sure what his name was (he wasn't very good with names in the first place, and Goblins names sounded more like random sounds strung together), watched him in amusement. "Missed you here last shipment."

"I would have come." Gil said as he pocketed his harmonica again. "But Harry wouldn't let me leave the ship." Harry had been oddly strict and protective these past few weeks, and he absolutely refused to let Gil out of his sights for more than five minutes at a time. Gil had only been able to sneak out because Bonny and Gonzo had helped him..

Gil didn't entirely understand what Harry's deal was. He knew that Harry was acting strangely because he felt guilty. Gil just didn't understand why he felt guilty. Harry had hurt loads of people before. He was frequently warning people that he wouldn't hesitate to hook them if they angered him, so if somebody did end up getting hooked, it was their own fault. Gil knew that Harry had a hard time controlling himself, and he knew that he shouldn't have pushed Harry the way that he had that day when his friend was already seeming very unstable. Gil knew that it was his own fault that he had gotten hurt, and he just didn't understand how Harry could still be blaming himself weeks later.

It just didn't make sense.

"Yeah, that Hook kid seems like a piece of work." The goblin snarled. Gil didn't understand why everybody used that tone of voice whenever they talked about Harry, like he was the worst of the worst. He wasn't though, he was just...Harry. "So, I'm guessing ya got another note?"

"Uh, yeah." Gil had almost forgotten about that, which was weird, considering it was the reason why he had come here in the first place. Gil reached into his pocket and brought out a wrinkled piece of paper. There was a message on it written in messy, barely legible handwriting. Not Gil's though. No, he had asked Jonas to write the note, like he did every time. Gil looked down at the paper and realized that he had forgotten something. "I don't have a bottle though."

The goblin smirked (or was that a scowl...or even a grin? Gil had a hard time reading facial expressions, and goblins were even harder than people). "I think I can fix that." The goblin gestured for Gil to follow him over to one of the boats that had just come in with the supplies. The goblin reached into the boat and pulled out a bottle that looked like the kind that Harry had lying around sometimes, except it wasn't filled with a drink. The bottle was empty except for an old paper rolled up inside.

"Is that-?" Gil grinned and took the bottle when the goblin held it out to him.

"Some blue haired girl swimming around the ocean a few weeks ago told me to give this to you." The goblin said. "Figured that you finally got the response that you've been waiting for."

"I hope so." Gil struggled for a moment to get the note out of the bottle. He opened it up and immediately recognized Uma's handwriting. She had gotten his messages and had sent back a reply. Gil knew that he should probably figure out what her note said, but at that moment he didn't care a lot about it. He was just glad that she had responded at all. He could always figure out what she had actually written later. "So she's really in Auradon?" Of course she was in Auradon. She wasn't on the Isle of the Lost, so Auradon was the only other place where she could be. It was just such a weird thought.

"Apparently." The goblin shrugged. "Glad you finally got ahold of your girl though."

Gil blinked. "My girl?" Uma wasn't his girl. She wasn't anybody's girl. She was just Uma.

"Hey, that you, Gillie?" Another goblin who actually looked and sounded very similar to the first one (Gil felt really bad that he couldn't tell them apart from each other) came to join them. The second goblin looked to the first. "You tell him about the letter yet?"

"I was getting to it." The first goblin growled.

"Letter?" Gil blinked. Not note? Was there something else for him?

The second goblin grinned...or, at least, Gil thought that it was a grin. It was so hard to tell. "Oh, kid, you're gonna love this." The goblin hopped onto the boat and started searching through a satchel that looked like it actually had a couple of letters in it. The goblin grabbed one of them and proudly held it out to Gil. "You know what this is, don't you?"

Gil took one look at the envelope and felt his breath catch in his throat. It was nice and not crinkled at all, a clear sign that it came from Auradon. The writing on it looked funny, it was all curly and smooth and didn't even look at writing at all. Gil didn't need to read what was on the envelope though to know who it was from. The very clear, blood red wax seal on the envelope had the royal insignia on it.

This was a letter from King Ben. And there was only one reason why a kid on the Isle of the Lost would receive a fancy, formal letter from the king himself.

"A-an invitation from Auradon?" Gil carefully took the envelope and just stared at it. After a minute he looked up at the goblins. "Why would I get invited to Auradon?"

"Are ya kiddin'?" The first goblin snorted. "Gillie, you're the nicest kid I've ever met on this island." Gil frowned. It sounded like the kind of thing that somebody would say when they felt like really insulting him, but it didn't sound like the goblin was trying to be mean.

"You don't belong on this island, kid." The second goblin added. That was something that Gil had heard a lot in his life. His brothers said it on a nearly daily basis. The crew said it when he made a really stupid mistake, which he did almost weekly. Gil had even heard Harry and Uma mutter it under their breath once or twice, even though they were the ones who were always quick to defend him whenever anybody else said it. "Even the king thinks you deserve better. It was his idea to send an invite for you."

"Ben?" Now that was shocking. Ben was in charge of sending out the invitations, everybody knew that, but it was also common knowledge that Mal and her pals were the ones who gave him the names. Why would Ben himself decide to send an invitation out for him of all people?

"Yep, so start packing your bags, kid." The first goblin said. "You're taking the next ferry out of here.

Okay, whoa. Gil's head started reeling. Things were moving just a little too quickly for him. "Uh...wait a second." Gil frowned slightly when he realized something. "What about Harry?"

The two goblins exchanged looks. "What about him?

"Can he come too?" The first goblin looked at him like he was crazy. The second goblin gave him a sad, almost pitying look. Gil didn't think he would like what their answer would be.

"Gil, the king's bringing people to Auradon to give them a chance to be good." The second goblin explained slowly, as though Gil didn't already know that. "Your friend...I don't think he'll ever be given that chance."

Gil furrowed his brow and tightened his grip on the envelope, which wrinkled the corners slightly. "Why not?"

"Because he wouldn't want it." The first goblin said. "That Hook boy is about as bad as you kids get. He's not going to embrace being good. Everybody knows that."

"H-he might." Gil didn't understand why everybody thought that Harry was evil. He wasn't. Harry was nicer than a bunch of other people that Gil knew. He just had a bit of a temper, that was all.

The goblins looked at each other again, almost as though they were having some kind of silent argument. A moment later the first goblin sighed. "Look, Gil, it's up to the people in Auradon to decide who goes there and who has to stay here. Do you really think that anybody there would think that your friend should be given a second chance?"

Gil frowned. As much as he hated it, he knew that the goblins were right. Nobody on the Isle thought that Harry had a decent bone in his body, and there was no way that the people in Auradon would consider it either. In their eyes, Harry Hook was crazy and evil, and that was all he would ever be.

It just wasn't fair.

Gil thought for a second. "...Do I have to go to Auradon?"

Now both of the goblins were looking at him like he was crazy. "...no, but why wouldn't you want to?"

Gil shook his head and handed the envelope back to one of the goblins. "Then I'm not going."

The second goblin reluctantly took the envelope back. "...are you sure, kid?"

Gil nodded without even having to think about it. "I'm not leaving. Not without Harry." The goblins both looked like they wanted to argue with him, but they knew that it wouldn't do any good. Gil may just be seen as Uma and Harry's muscle, but he wasn't just a blind follower. When Gil wanted something, then he didn't stop until he could have it, and once he had it, he refused to let it go.

Stubbornness was just something that ran in the family.

Gil had earned his place at Harry's side, and he wasn't going to leave him just because nobody else bothered to get to know Harry at all. Gil was far to stubborn and loyal to even think of doing such a think.

"Well, if you change your mind…" One of the goblins started to say.

"I won't." Gil knew that for certain. Sure, life was tough on the Isle of the Lost, but it wasn't always so bad. Maybe life would be better in Auradon, but what kind of friend would he be if he left Harry behind just because something good came up for him? Gil wasn't going to do that.

He would rather continue living on The Isle of the Lost than be in Auradon without Harry. And if this was just proof that Gil was as much of an idiot as everybody said he was, then so be it. It wasn't as though Gil had ever cared about what other people said anyways.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Alright, time to switch things up a little bit. I know that this story is about Gil and Harry, but just for the heck of it, let's have a chapter from somebody else's point of view. Somebody like...Beast. Seems random, I know, but I feel like this is the only way to continue on from where the last chapter, and do it properly. Just for simplicity's sake, I'm going to have Beast's name be Adam. I know it's not exactly canon, but to my knowledge it's the closest thing we have, and I can't exactly spend the whole chapter calling him Beast or King. Especially since he isn't the king anymore.

Adam had never set foot on the Isle of the Lost, though he had thought about it many times. As much as the isle was meant to be a prison, it was also meant to be livable. Adam had made sure that the children over there had an education made available to them. He had even made arrangements to have the sorcerer Yen Sid be a teacher at one of the schools over on the isle. He knew that the man could serve as a positive influence for those children.

Despite what many people seemed to think, Adam hadn't intentionally made the living situations on the Isle so bad that it was almost unlivable. Every month he would make sure that food, clothing, and other necessities and wants were sent to the island. For twenty years Adam had told the people of Auradon that it would be greatly appreciated if they would be willing to donate anything they didn't need anymore to those on the island. He had known that the villains would be getting mostly second-hand materials, but he had trusted his people to be a little more generous than to leave them with literal trash. Needless to say, when Adam got word from Mal and her friends about what conditions were like on the isle, he hadn't been pleased.

He had intended on visiting the Isle of the Lost, to see just how bad things were for himself, but he had always come up with the smallest reasons to not go. The longer he put it off, the easier it got for him to convince himself to avoid going there.

Finally though, he couldn't put it off anymore. Not when his son insisted on going to the Isle himself to talk to this boy who, for one reason or another, refused to come to Auradon. Adam didn't know who this boy was, but Ben kept on insisting that he was a good kid who didn't belong on the Isle. Adam knew that Ben had a bit of a gift with seeing the best in people, he was just like his mother in that way, but Adam still wasn't about to let his son walk off to the Isle. Not on his own.

Besides, it was long since past time that Adam saw the state of living that the rest of his people had been living with for the past twenty years.

And that was how Ben and Adam found themselves on the Isle of the Lost, walking around the docks as they tried to find this boy named Gil. Ben didn't seem to know exactly where he was going, but after Adam had bribed some small, starving children, they got some directions. Adam wasn't sure how comfortable he felt with looking for a pirate ship that had belonged to the girl who had put a love spell over his son. But he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince Ben to give up and just return to Auradon, and Adam wasn't about to let his son continue on by himself, so they kept going.

To Adam's relief, they didn't have to go all the way to Uma's old ship. A few blocks away from where they had been told The Lost Revenge was Adam and Ben saw a young man sitting at the edge of the water, playing a harmonica. Adam had felt wary about this boy at first, but Ben looked excited to see him.

"Gil!" Ben smiled and made his way towards the teenager. Adam loved that his son was so optimistic all the time, but he wished that he would be just a little more cautious. The harmonica player lowered his instrument and turned towards them, a look on confusion on his face. Adam had expected for the boy to look confused, angry, or possibly even scared when he saw them. What Adam had not expected was to see the boy grin.

"Oh, hey Ben." Gil greeted cheerfully, which threw Adam off. After what he had heard about the isle, the last thing he had expected was to meet somebody on there who was actually cheerful about anything. Especially not when talking to the current king of Auradon. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you, actually." Ben sat down on the ground next to Gil.

The blonde boy frowned slightly. "Is this about the invitations? I thought I made it clear that I'm not going to Auradon."

"Why not though?" Ben asked. "Gil, I haven't known you for very long, and even I know that you don't belong in this place."

Gil sighed in slight annoyance. Something told Adam that this wasn't the first time that he had heard something along the lines of what Ben had just said. "I don't think that anybody really belongs here." Gil said. "But I still can't leave."

"Why not?" Adam crossed his arms. Gil blinked and looked at him curiously.

"Do I know you?" Gil asked. Before Adam could even think about how he should respond to that, Gil continued. "Anyways, I'm not leaving without Harry."

"Harry?" Ben frowned. "Isn't he-"

"Don't." Gil said in an unnervingly dark tone. "Don't you dare call him insane."

"Okay." Ben was quick to say. "I won't." Ben was quiet for a moment. "Why don't you come to Auradon and we'll see about bringing Harry over later?"

"No." Gil turned back towards the ocean and glared out towards the water. "You guys wouldn't let Harry over. I know you wouldn't."

"Are you two talking about Harry Hook?" Adam's eyes were drawn to an ugly looking scar on the side of Gil's face. It wasn't clean enough to have come from a sword, and Adam was all too familiar with claw marks to know that they hadn't been the cause either. And Ben had told Adam about Harry Hook, the boy who seemed to have a quick temper, and was much too desperate to use his hook for it to be healthy. "Why are you so quick to defend someone who hurt you like that?"

"Wait, Harry did that to you?" Ben's eyes widened in alarm. Gil flinched and ducked his head in an attempt to hide the scar.

"...It was an accident." Gil said in a quiet but firm voice. "I shouldn't have pushed him. It was my fault."

"No, it wasn't." Adam growled as he stepped closer to the boys. "I don't know what happened, and it doesn't matter what happened. Nothing that you could have said or done should give your friend the right to hurt you like that." Adam had learned that lesson a long time ago, and he liked to think that it had stuck with him pretty well.

Gil looked alarmed at his words, and a little confused, as though what he had said didn't even register or make the least amount of sense. That was when Adam knew that this boy hadn't just been hurt, he had been abused. Taking the blame for when other people hurt him was the only thing that he knew. Adam didn't know if it was just Harry who had hurt Gil, or if there had been others too. And if there were more, would Gil defend them just like he did for Harry?

He probably would.

"I know it looks bad, but...Harry's not a bad person." Gil frowned slightly, though there wasn't a shred of doubt in his voice. He truly believed that Harry was his friend, and Adam didn't think he would be able to convince him otherwise. "Other people would see it too if they just tried to look for it." Adam wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't feel he could say anything because he had never even met Harry Hook, and so far the villain kids had all turned out pretty well, despite their upbringing and questionable morals.

Ben looked like he wanted to say something, probably along the lines of asking Gil just what good he saw in Harry. Before he could figure out what to say though, a shout that sounded like it was from about a block away interrupted him before he could even begin.

"Where are you, runt?!" The voice was teasing and cruel, and it immediately set Adam on edge when he heard it. Not as much as it made Gil though. The blonde actually looked fairly scared, which immediately made Adam feel more cautious. Gil looked like a fairly physically fit boy, and Adam figured he was just as strong as he looked. He wasn't afraid of him or Ben, even though one had been the ruler of Auradon and one was the ruler of Auradon. Gil didn't even seem to be afraid of Harry Hook, despite how the other boy had hurt him.

Adam couldn't think of anything that should put such blatant fear into Gil's eyes, and he didn't think that he wanted to know. Unfortunately, just a few moments later, Adam saw for himself just what could scare Gil like this.

Two young men walked towards where they were at the docks. Adam didn't know who they were, but the way that Gil tensed slightly when he saw them told them that he did know them. Adam hadn't understood why Gil had reacted earlier when one of the young men had called out, because he couldn't imagine anybody calling Gil a runt. Seeing these two young men though, Adam definitely understood it. Both of them looked bigger, stronger, and older than Gil was.

Adam didn't know what it was about the two of them, but something about their appearance and the way that they carried themselves as though they owned the docks, even though they stood out more there than Adam and Ben did, made him feel a sense of familiarity. And not in a good way either.

"There you are, Runt." One of the young men said playfully while his companion smirked in a near predatory way. "We should have known that a little bilge rat like you would be around this dump."

"What do you want, Jun?" Gil sounded tired and cautious. Adam got the sense that these two had caused trouble for him before, and it hadn't ended so well for him the last time.

"We were in the mood for going on a bit of a hunt." The other said as he grabbed a gun that he had slung over his shoulder. "Any idea where we can find some useless rodents around here?"

Gil's eyes widened. "Bronze, please." His tone was quiet and pleading. He looked absolutely terrified.

Jun laughed and strode over to Gil. He hit him on the back in a way that could be seen as friendly, but most definitely wasn't. "Calm down, little brother, we're just messing with you."

"Heh, right." Gil laughed nervously, though he didn't relax.

"Brother?" Ben frowned. Bronze and Jun both turned towards him in confusion. Adam felt his blood run cold when he saw both of their eyes widen in recognition when they saw Ben. This couldn't end well.

"Isn't this interesting?" Jun harshly shoved Gil to the side as he made his way towards Ben. "We came looking for a little rat and we found a baby beast instead."

Adam grabbed his son's arm and pulled him behind him. He glared at Jun. "Don't you dare touch him." Adam growled angrily.

Jun matched his glare easily, though there was more of a malicious look in his eyes. He looked more intrigued than intimidated. Jun wasn't the least bit afraid of him, and that was something that Adam wasn't used to.

"Wait a second." Bronze put a hand on Jun's arm. "Don't we know that guy?" Adam wasn't sure what it was about these brothers that made it that they didn't recognize him right away. He had thought that everybody on the isle would recognize his face. Unlike Gil though, Adam didn't think that these guys would back off as easily as he had.

Jun examined Adam's face carefully for a few long, tense moments before he smirked. "Yeah, I think we do." He turned towards his companion. "Just wait till we tell Dad about this." Adam could tell that Jun was about to turn, probably to go tell his father, like he had said, when he froze suddenly.

"I can't let you do that." Gil's voice was flat and dangerous. He had drawn his sword and had it pointed right at his brother's back.

Bronze quickly turned and aimed his gun at Gil. "You pick today to get guts, runt?"

"You have no idea what you're doing, kid." Jun said.

"I know exactly what I'm doing." Gil said seriously. "I'm not going to let you hurt them."

*Bang*

Gil let out a strangled scream. There was a clattering sound as he dropped his sword. Bronze had shot him in the right shoulder. Before Gil could gather himself Bronze lunged forward and grabbed his injured arm. He pulled Gil forward, which brought a pained whimper out of him. Jun turned his attention away from Adam and Ben and towards his brothers.

"Why are you defending them!" Jun shouted furiously. "Do you have any idea who they are?"

"I-I know who Ben is." Gil said in a pained voice. "He's n-nice."

"Nice." Bronze sneered. "What about his father?"

Adam didn't miss the way that Gil flinched. "W-what's he got to do with this?" Gil tried to pull away from Bronze's grip, but he couldn't. Especially not when Bronze's grip had tightened.

"Are you kidding me?" Jun snarled. He grabbed Gil's ponytail and pulled harshly on it. "How stupid are you?"

"Leave him alone." Ben said. Adam would have been upset with his son for saying something that could potentially put him in danger instead, except for the fact that he had been about to say the same thing.

"Just wait for a few minutes, your highness." Jun sneered sarcastically, but he didn't take his attention away from his smaller brother. "I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done with this little runt here."

Gil whimpered when Jun pulled harshly at his hair and began to drag him painfully towards the water. "You want to play the hero, runt?"

"J-Jun." Gil pleaded quietly, but he was ignored.

"You know what happens to heroes on this island." The look in Jun's eyes was dangerous

Adam would have run forward to help him, and he knew that Ben wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing, but Bronze blocked them. They couldn't do anything but watch as Jun slowly pulled Gil until they were right at the edge of the water. Gil struggled, but with his injured shoulder and the fact that Jun was bigger and stronger than he was, it didn't do him much good. With very little difficult Jun hit Gil over the head and then just watched as he fell into the water.

"No!" Ben clenched his fists and hit Bronze in the jaw. It probably hurt Ben's hand more than it hurt Bronze's face, but it was enough to put the young man off his guard for a moment. That was long enough for Adam to push past him and get to the water. He didn't hesitate for a second before diving into the ocean.

It was difficult to see in the murky, salty waters, but Adam easily found Gil, who was sinking rather quickly. It didn't take Adam too long to reach the teenager. Reaching Gil was the easy part, swimming him up to the surface was much more difficult. Gil was all but dead weight in his arms, and their wet clothes dragged him down even more. After a few moments of struggling another blur in the water dove down and helped him. Even though he couldn't clearly see who it was, there was no doubt in his mind that it was Ben.

With the two of them working together, Adam and Ben were able to get Gil up to the surface. The first thing Adam did was make sure that Gil's head was above the water. The second thing he did was look towards the dock. One glance showed that it was empty. Jun and Bronze had probably ran off to get their father. Adam wasn't entirely sure who their father was, though he felt like he should. Whoever he was though, Adam had no doubt that he didn't want to be around when he came. He didn't want Ben to be around, and even though he barely knew the boy, after seeing how his brothers treated him he didn't want Gil to be anywhere near his father.

"We need to get him somewhere safe." Adam said. Ben looked relieved by his words.

"We're not far from their ship." Ben said as he swam to the dock and pulled himself up.

Adam wasn't so sure about that idea. "Ben-"

"Dad, I know that you don't trust them," Ben reached down and helped to pull Gil out of the water. "But Gil does."

"That Hook boy cut him." Adam reminded his son angrily.

"But he also took care of the injury afterwards." Ben said. "I have seen old scars and injuries from other kids who lived here, and most of them looked much worse than this one did." Adam knew that Ben was right about that much. He too had seen scars, mostly on Mal and Carlos, and even though they were years old and the injuries themselves hadn't been as bad as Gil's cut was, their scars looked much worse than Gil's still healing cut did. Adam wanted to argue that Gil could have just taken care of his wound on his own, but he knew even better than his son did that it was much easier to take care of somebody else's injuries than one's own.

So even though he didn't like it, Adam knew that Ben was right. Gil would be better off in a familiar setting, somewhere he felt comfortable. Adam would have prefered it if they could just take Gil back to Auradon to care for him, but the boy had already made it clear that he wouldn't leave without Harry.

And Adam wanted to see for himself just what Harry Hook was like. He had met Gil, and had known within five minutes that he wanted to get the blond off of the Isle of the Lost. If the only way to make that happen was by letting Harry come to Auradon, than Adam thought that he should at least meet the pirate.

Ben lead the way to the ship while Adam followed behind him with an unconscious Gil in his arms. He must have been knocked out when Jun had knocked him over the head, or from shock and fear after falling into the water. Adam was concerned about him, but he was almost glad that Gil was unconscious. He had been shot, and even though the injury wasn't bleeding all that much, it probably hurt beyond imagination. The salt water from the ocean probably didn't help to make it feel any better.

Ben had mentioned once that the ship was rundown, but Adam had still expected it to at least resemble a ship. The vessel, if one could call it that, was little more than a large pile of wood stacked precariously on itself. It looked like the smallest breeze could tear the whole thing apart and cause it to collapse into the ocean.

As they approached the wrecked ship Adam saw two young men look over the side of the ship at them. They both looked extremely alarmed when they saw them, though Adam wasn't sure if it was because of who they were or the state that Gil was in.

"Captain!" The older boy turned behind him. "We've got company."

A teenager with dark hair soon joined his crewmates on the deck. He and Ben made eye-contact, and neither of them looked very happy to see the other. Adam assumed that they knew each other, which meant that this had to be Harry.

"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon, Benny." Harry glared down at them. "What are you-" Harry froze when he laid eyes on Gil. "What...what did you do?!"

"It wasn't us." Adam was quick to say. "His brothers did this."

"Jun and Bronze?" Harry's eyes flashed dangerously. "Where are they?"

"They went to get their dad." Ben said.

Harry's eyes widened in shock. He eyed Ben and Adam warily. "...Why have you brought him here?"

Adam frowned, an ugly feeling built up in his chest. "He was trying to defend us."

Harry didn't look surprised at the news, but he did look scared. Harry looked at Gil for a moment and looked conflicted. Finally he sighed and glared down at them. "Bring him aboard."

Adam still didn't know if he trusted Harry, but he certainly seemed to care about Gil, and Adam didn't want to see what the pirate would do if he didn't do as he asked. Adam made his way up the gangway and onto the so called ship. The second he stepped onto the ship he was greeted by a half dozen swords, all pointed right at him. He was annoyed by how distrusting and quick to violence these children were, but not surprised.

Harry glared at Adam and gestured for him to put Gil down on the deck. The second that Adam did so Harry dropped his weapon and hurried to his side. Adam and Harry knelt on either side of Gil. Ben and the rest of the pirate crew stood to the side, uncertain of what to do.

"How bad is it, Captain?" One of the girls asked.

"...We've seen worse." Harry said. "Gunshot wound to the shoulder, but it was a clean shot and went straight through. There's not a lot of bleeding, and no bullet lodged in his shoulder this time." This time? How many times had Gil's brothers done something like this?

"He was also hit on the head, was dragged around by his hair, and nearly drowned." Ben commented. Harry looked up at him, a dark look in his eyes.

"He's been through worse." Harry insisted slowly for emphasis. Adam felt sick to his stomach. Gil had been through a lot. His brothers had nearly killed him that day, and Adam had no doubt that something like this had happened multiple times in the past. Gil's brothers abused him, and his only true refuge was with somebody who was abusive himself. Gil didn't deserve a life like this.

...Just how many kids on the isle lived lives similar to this?

Harry gently untied the bandana on Gil's hair and began to use it to clean up the blood on his shoulder. It went fine for a moment until Harry accidentally probed to close to the injury itself and the pain was enough to bring Gil back to consciousness.

Gil groaned and tried to shift away from Harry, but he was too weak and still barely conscious. The most that Gil could do was turn his head away from the source of the pain. Adam watched as Gil slowly struggled to open his eyes. After a few moments Gil was able to force his eyes open enough to see more than just blurry shapes. Gil took one look at Adam, and not even a second later he began to scream in complete terror.

Harry swore and pulled his hand back as Gil began to struggle and continue to scream. "Gil, stop." Harry pushed down on Gil's shoulders to try to keep him still. "You need to calm down."

"He-he's gonna…" Gil cried out as he continued to try to pull away. "..They said-"

"I know." Harry said in an uncharacteristically reassuring voice. "I know what they said, but I need you to listen to what I'm saying, okay?"

"H-Harry-" Gil whimpered.

"Okay?" Harry said in a more forceful, but still gentle, tone.

Gil let out a sound that was between a whimper and a groan, but he nodded.

"Good." Harry let go of Gil's shoulders and brushed the wet hair away from his face. "Now, the people of Bore-adon may be self-righteous fools, but they're not complete idiots. They wouldn't let a dangerous man who would eat children in their sleep be their king, would they?"

"...No?" Gil didn't sound completely sure.

"No, they wouldn't." Harry confirmed. "He's just here to help me take care of your shoulder."

"A-and then he'll leave?" Gil pleaded.

"Yeah, he'll leave." Harry reassured him. Adam couldn't make any such promise, but he knew that Harry had just said whatever he could think of to get Gil to calm down. It worked. Gil kept calm and quiet, or at least as much as he could. A few minutes later Harry announced that he had done as much as he could with the limited resources and time that they had. Not even a minute after Harry had finished a young woman on the crew alerted them that Jun and Bronze were on their way back, and their father was right behind them.

Harry swore under his breath again. "Alright, Gil, I need you to do something really important for me."

"W-what?" Gil winced as Harry helped him to sit up.

"I need you to keep those two below deck." Harry gestured towards Ben and Adam. "Your brothers told your father that they're here."

"What?" Gil's eyes widened in alarm.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it." Harry looked back at the rest of the crew. "We'll convince him your brothers were wrong, which wouldn't be the first time. Your job is to keep him from seeing them, alright?"

"O-okay." Adam didn't like how scared Gil sounded. Was he afraid of his father being so nearby, or was he scared of being so close to Adam? Gil looked towards Ben, who smiled encouragingly at him. Gil relaxed slightly at the sight. As much as he was afraid of Adam, he was still okay with Ben.

"Come on." Ben walked forward and held out a hand to pull Gil up. "Show me where below deck is?" I've only really seen the plank of this ship."

Gil smiled weakly and went to show Ben where to go. Adam was about to go follow them when Harry grabbed his arm harshly.

"Keep him away from his father." Harry said in a low voice. His threat was left unspoken, but Adam got the message loud and clear anyways.

"I will." Adam didn't want anything bad to happen to Gil. "...Would his father hurt him for standing up for me and my son?"

"His father would hurt him for breathing too loudly." Harry's eyes were serious. "He will kill him for defending you." Adam could hear the concern in Harry's voice. He wasn't exaggerating.

"I won't let that happen." Adam promised.

Harry studied him for a moment. "...we have that much in common." The young pirate then shoved him towards where Gil and Ben had gone. "Now go."

Adam went below deck to find Ben and Gil waiting for him. Gil sent a wary look Adam's direction, but he didn't say anything. He just began to lead them further down beneath the ship. Gil was willing to keep them safe, even though it was clear that he didn't trust them. Adam didn't want to scare Gil anymore than he already had, so he was careful to keep his distance. The last thing that Adam wanted was to startle the kid and cause him to react in a way that might irritate his injuries even more.

Ben lingered behind with Adam. He seemed upset. Adam wanted to know what was on his mind, but he didn't ask. Over the years he had learned that Ben would eventually talk about what was bothering him, but only if he was given the time to gather his thoughts properly. After a few moments Ben spoke in a quiet voice so that Gil wouldn't hear him.

"I don't like how he reacted when he learned who you were." Ben said.

"Neither did I." Adam admitted. Gil had been so scared. "That wasn't normal, was it?" Ben was more familiar with the isle kids and their behaviors than he was.

"No." Ben frowned and shook his head. "The closest thing to this that I've seen is Carlos when he first got to Auradon." Carlos De Vil. Adam didn't know the boy well, but Ben had told him that he had been absolutely terrified of dogs, that his mother had lied to him for years and convinced him that all dogs were vicious, murderous monsters. Adam couldn't imagine why a parent would do such a thing.

While Adam had learned that the children that came from the isle may not be evil like their parents, he couldn't help but notice that who they were had been greatly influenced by who their parents had been. Jay was a charming boy, but he seemed to struggle more than the others with recognizing the differences between good and bad. He still had a kleptomania problem, almost as though he couldn't help but steal things. His father had raised him to think only of himself, and Jay had a difficult time recognizing other people's needs or knowing what to do when he saw them.

Carlos was a quiet boy who hated conflict and always tried to help people, but Adam still wasn't sure if it was because he was a nice person by nature or because his mom had all but tortured him if he didn't do everything that she asked.

Evie had accepted that she didn't need to be with a prince to be happy, and she had accepted that fairly easily. What Evie struggled with was letting go of her mother's philosophy that beauty was everything. She had come to realize that there was more to her than just a pretty face, but she still felt the need to make herself look perfect. She couldn't help it any more than Jay and Carlos could help their habits and mannerisms.

As for Mal...she was complicated. Adam could see that she was trying her best to be good, but he knew that nobody put as much pressure on her as she did. Her mother had been the rule of the Isle of the Lost, and she had raised Mal to be the best at whatever she did. Whether Mal was trying to be good or bad, if she wasn't the best then she seemed to believe that she was an absolute failure.

Adam couldn't know just how much Gil's personality and habits had been influenced by his upbringing, because he didn't know how he had been raised. Adam couldn't even come up with a guess beyond just that he was abused because he didn't even know who Gil's father was, and that bothered him. Not because it truly mattered, but because Adam had a record of all of the villains and their offspring, and Gil's name was nowhere on any of his lists. Neither were Jun or Bronze. The only explanation that Adam could think of was that those weren't their true names. The question still remained though, what were their true names, and why had they changed them?

Adam didn't think that it truly mattered, but he couldn't help but feel as though it was important somehow. It might explain...something.

The pirate ship wasn't all that large, and there wasn't a lot of room below deck. If Gil's family thought to look down here, the three of them would be found within a minute. Adam just had to trust that Harry had control of things up on deck...it was a difficult thing to do.

Things were tense for those first few minutes as there was nothing for them to do but wait. Adam didn't know if it was because Gil was bored, claustrophobic, anxious because Adam was there, nervous that his father was likely on his way to the ship, or a combination of all of them, but the teenager seemed to be incapable of relaxing. Ben tried to calmly talk Gil into calming down. Adam didn't think it would do any good. Ben was too gentle, and gentleness wasn't exactly something that was common on the Isle of the Lost. To Adam's surprise, Gil began to calm down as Ben just asked him questions about himself.

Ben began by keeping the questions simple, ones that wouldn't take too much thought to answer. How old are you? (seventeen...I think.) What's your favorite color? (Yellow). What's your favorite food. (I don't really have any. I don't like eggs though.) As Gil grew more comfortable, Ben began to ask more complicated questions.

"How did you meet Uma and Harry?" Ben asked.

"We were friends as kids." Gil said easily. "I met Harry first. I started following him around because I have two brothers, and he had two sisters, so I just felt drawn to him. We kinda grew apart for a bit when they started going to a different school than me, but when Uma got this ship, she was more than happy to let me join her crew."

"Why are your brothers so mean to you?" Ben asked in a quiet voice. Gil frowned at the question.

"I...don't know." Gil looked confused, as though he had never thought about it before.

"They do it just because they can." Adam answered for them. "They're bigger, older, and stronger than you, and it makes them feel powerful to remind you of that."

Gil pouted slightly. "That's stupid."

"It's more common than you'd think." Adam cringed to remember the days that he had been like that. He liked to think that he had never been as bad as Gil's brothers were, but he didn't pretend to think that he had been a saint either.

As Adam listened to Ben's questions and Gil's answers, a question of his own ran through his head. A question that he was hesitant to ask, though he knew that he needed an answer for. Finally, Adam forced himself to ask the question that had been weighing on his mind for awhile now.

"What has Harry done to convince you that there is good in him?"

Gil looked surprised by the question, and for a minute he didn't answer. Eventually Gil was able to gather his thoughts and come up with the words to express what was going through his head. "Harry's done lots of things for me. He's never hurt me for upsetting Uma, even though he's hurt people pretty badly for less. Harry lets me give food to those that need it, even though he thinks that we need it more. He lets me keep my cat, Little Demon, even though he doesn't like her. And Harry understands me better than anybody else on the isle does."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked.

Gil was quiet for a moment. "...I have a hard time understanding things sometimes. I can be told a million times that I'm not supposed to do or say something, but I'll do it anyways because I just keep on forgetting, or I don't understand. Harry doesn't get mad at me for always messing up. He just...He gets me." Gil frowned. "Harry sometimes can't control what he says and does either. He needs somebody else to be there to remind him of who he is sometimes. Uma used to do it, but she's gone, so I'm doing it."

"And that's why you can't leave him?" Adam didn't entirely understand, but he understood well enough. It wasn't just that Gil didn't want to leave his friend, he didn't want Harry to lose himself.

Gil grinned. "Yeah." He looked from Adam to Ben. "...You guys won't make me leave him, will you?"

Adam and Ben met each other's eyes. Ben had an unspoken question in his eyes, and even though Adam wasn't entirely sure that it was the smartest thing to do, he nodded his approval. He still didn't know whether or or not Harry actually had the potential to be good in him, but one thing was clear. The young pirate cared a lot about Gil, and maybe, just maybe, that could be enough. Ben grinned and looked back at Gil. "You won't have to leave him. I'd still like for you to come to Auradon, but this time the invitation is extended to both of you."

Gil's face lit up. "Really?"

"Really." Ben nodded. "I promised Uma that I would do more for the children of the Isle of the Lost, and I wouldn't exactly be keeping my promise if I don't even give her friends a chance."

"Alright, you lot, the danger's gone, for now." Harry's voice called out from above as he made his way below deck to get them. "Gas-Gil's father and brothers have left, but they could come back." Harry came into view. "What I want to know though is what you two are doing here, and-" Harry trailed off when he saw them, with Ben grinning broadly and Gil looking like he could just about hug the young king. "...and just what has got you two so cheerful?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: That feels like an odd but okay place to end the chapter. It's about time too, because this thing was just dragging on and on. It was an interesting chapter to write though, to say the least. It was challengingly fun to write Adam in a way that showed him as the one who banished all of the villains and their children to the Isle of the Lost, while still keeping his sympathetic nature that feels more natural for this character.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, last chapter was from Adam's point of view, and this one is from Ben's. I swear, next chapter the focus will be back to Gil (and it's a chapter I'm seriously looking forward to writing), I just figured that this chapter worked best from Ben's point of view, just like I felt like the last one needed to be from Adam's.

Ben was well aware that life on the Isle of the Lost was completely different than it was in Auradon. Even the atmosphere of the kingdom and the dreary island couldn’t be any more different. Ben understood this, but he had never really thought about just how shocking the sudden contrast would be for somebody who had lived on the isle their whole life.

Ben needed to get into the habit of being present when the villain kids first crossed beyond the barrier and got their first taste of Auradon, because both Gil and Harry’s reactions were amazing. Even just these little reactions gave Ben a taste of just what what kind of changes he was making in these kids’ lives.

“Wow.” Gil said for the fifth or sixth time in the past ten minutes, and he still sounded just as enthusiastic as he had been that first time. Gil grinned broadly, closed his eyes, and just let himself bask in the sunlight. “It’s so warm out here.”

“And bright.” Harry muttered in a tone that was filled with so much awe, wonder and respect that it almost sounded reverent. While Gil had his attention towards the sky, Harry hadn’t looked away from the sea from the second they had crossed the barrier. It made Ben feel glad that he and his dad had taken a boat to the isle instead of just taking the limo. Mal and her friends had been impressed by the limo, because they had all been influenced by their parents to appreciate the very best that life had to offer.

Gil and Harry though, they were apparently very simple to please. Just give them fair weather and a wide open sea and they were completely content. Ben believed that the only thing they needed to truly feel at home was to have the rest of their crew at their side. Ben planned on eventually bringing the rest of Uma’s crew to Auradon, but he had to start small. Once Harry and Gil got used to life in Auradon, then Ben could think about bringing the others over without worrying too much about them revolting.

Gil turned towards Harry and looked out to the sea with him. The way that the sun shone on the water, the world really did seem brighter than it normally would be. “Hey, maybe we’ll find Uma out there.” Gil said cheerfully. 

“Yeah, maybe.” Harry agreed reluctantly, though Ben could hear the hope in his voice.

“It sure would be great to see Uma again.” Gil said. He winced when a small cat jumped onto his injured shoulder. “Ow! Demon Spawn, that hurts.” 

Ben gently grabbed the cat from off of Gil’s shoulder before Harry could decide to throw it into the ocean. “Why is your cat named Demon Spawn?” 

“Because it’s the only other name that the little beast will actually answer to.” Harry said irritably.

“What’s its actual name?” Ben’s father asked.

“I can’t remember.” Gil said. “We can ask Carlos though. She’s his cat.”

Ben vaguely remembered Carlos mentioning that he had a pet cat. He was a little concerned about how Dude would react to meeting Carlos’ old pet, but he didn’t have the heart to mention it to Gil when the blond had insisted on taking the cat with them. If the cat and Dude didn’t get along, then there were plenty of people in Auradon who would be more than happy to take care of the cat. Or Gil could just keep it. Ben was sure that he would like that, even though Harry would probably hate it.

“Speaking of the mutt, how do you think he and his friends will react to seeing us in Bore-adon?” Harry asked Gil before he looked slyly towards Ben. “I’m going to guess that you didn’t tell your girlfriend that we were coming.”

No, he hadn’t, because Ben himself hadn’t even known that he would be bringing both Gil and Harry to Auradon. It had been a bit of a spur of the moment kind of decision, but both Ben and his father had agreed that it would be better to get Gil off the isle and away from his family as soon as possible. Ben knew that Mal probably wouldn’t be happy about this, but she would forgive him. After all, Mal wouldn’t let her hatred for Uma carry over towards her whole crew, especially when they were kids that needed help, just as much as any other kid. Mal would understand...wouldn’t she?

(Ben made a mental note to talk to Mal about this before she saw Harry and Gill in Auradon.)

“I’ll take care of it.” Ben said. He must not have sounded nearly as confident as he hoped, because Harry snickered and Gil frowned slightly and put his hand over his wounded shoulder. Ben made another mental note to get somebody to look at that shoulder when they got to Auradon. It would probably be best to give Gil just a basic check-up, because Ben didn’t like how casual he was being about nearly drowning and being shot by his older brothers.

Why hadn’t he thought of having all the kids from the isle go through an initial check up when it was glaringly obvious that their lives hadn’t been easy on the Isle of the Lost? It seemed like such a basic thing to do, and Ben had never even considered it before. As much as he wanted to help these kids, he just felt like he was failing them.

“Hey, Ben?” The young king was drawn out of his musings by Gil’s question. “How do you choose who gets to go to Auradon?”

“Actually, I’ve been wondering the same thing.” Harry looked at Ben strangely. “I get why you chose him,” Harry gestured to Gil, “but why the traitors?”

It took Ben a moment to understand who Harry was talking about. “Well, a big reason why I chose Mal and her friends was because of Yen Sid’s suggestion.”

“Yen Sid?” Gil tested the name on his tongue like it was the strangest thing in the world. He turned towards Harry. “Isn’t that the hat guy?” Harry ignored Gil’s question.

“Why did you ask the sorcerer?” The pirate’s tone was tense. Ben could tell that he was upset, he just didn’t have a single guess as to why.

“I didn’t personally know anybody on the isle,” Ben said. “I knew that Yen Sid was a teacher at the school, and he could give some insight at who he thought would benefit most from coming to Auradon.”

“You think he chose who he thought would benefit the most from leaving the isle?” Harry’s eyes flashed dangerously and Gil started to look a little uncomfortable. “He chose the two biggest teacher’s pets at Dragon Hall because he liked them, and the two biggest troublemakers there, because he didn’t like them.”

“Wait a second, that’s why you chose them?” Gil frowned. “That’s not fair. What about the kids at Serpent Prep?”

“Or the ones who didn’t go to school at all, or didn’t stand out as much as their peers?” Harry continued. “Or even just the kids who didn’t stand out as much?”

“Look, I know my idea wasn’t perfect, but I had to start somewhere.” Ben said defensively. “I’m working on bringing more kids over. Evie’s been helping me decide who-”

“Evie?!” Harry sounded completely outraged.

“Wait, she knows people?” Gil tilted his head in confusion. “I thought she and her mom were banished for ten years.”

“She was.” Harry glared harshly at Ben. “That girl barely knew anybody on the isle. What are you asking her for?”

“I-I didn’t…” Ben didn’t know what to say, because Harry was right. Ben hadn’t heard anything about Evie being ‘banished’. Did she really grow up isolated from everybody else? 

“Alright, knock it off back there.” Ben’s father said from his place at the front of the boat. Usually they had one of their servants captain their ships, but they had wanted to keep their destination low key, so they hadn’t brought anybody with them. “Hook, if you want to have a say in who comes to Auradon, then you’ll be heard, but so will everybody else.”

Harry rolled his eyes and turned his focus back to the ocean. “I’ll be heard.” Harry scoffed, as though he didn’t believe Ben’s father at all. Ben understood why he was being pessimistic, but he still wished that he would tone things down a bit. Ben just didn’t think that Harry even knew how to tone things down.

The rest of the boat ride was spent in relative silence. Ben didn’t try to strike up any more conversation because he knew that anything he said would just agitate Harry further, and they really didn’t need that. And Ben didn’t think he would get that much conversation out of Gil either, because the blond seemed to be really uncomfortable and almost nervous on the boat. Ben had little doubt that it was because of his father. He just wished he knew why Gil almost seemed to be afraid of him. Ben knew that his dad could be an intimidating guy, and that he had made the decision to imprison the villains and their kids on the Isle of the Lost, but he doubted that was it.

Ben didn’t mind the quiet, but he was still relieved when they docked at the small pier near his family’s castle. From there it was just a short car drive back home. As Ben had suspected, Gil and Harry weren’t nearly as impressed with the car as they had been with the boat. Gil actually looked bored, because there was only so much he could look out at through the darkened windows, and Harry seemed to look a bit anxious. Maybe he was claustrophobic, or maybe it was just because he had never been in a car before. Ben made a mental note to look into the problem, because if Harry was going to be living in Auradon, Ben wanted him to live with as little stress as was possible

Maybe he should start using a notebook or something to keep track of all of these mental notes.

They drove up to the castle and Ben grinned when he saw how Gil’s eyes widened when he saw it.

“Whoa,” Gil’s voice was filled with awe. 

“You can say that again, mate,” Harry actually sounded fairly impressed, though still slightly annoyed. He looked at Ben. “Let me guess. This is where you live.”

“Yep.” Ben got out of the car. He saw that his father looked as amused by Gil and Harry’s reactions as he was. “I hope you guys don’t mind staying here for a bit.” Ben had been expecting a little bit of excitement or disbelief, at least from Gil, so he was even more confused and concerned when he saw his actual reaction.

“Here?” Gil seemed to freeze. The way that he looked at the castle now was as though he saw it as more of a prison. “With you?”

Ben frowned. “Is there a problem?” He didn’t want to force them to stay somewhere that they didn’t feel comfortable with.

Harry took a step forward so he was in front of Gil, almost as though he was protecting him. The pirate shot a look of distrust towards Ben’s father. Ben wished that he knew what their problem with his father was. “You’re telling me that in all of Auradon you don’t have anywhere else for us to stay?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “Do you have all the kids from the isle shoved up in there?”

“Not exactly.” Ben’s father said, and Ben didn’t miss the way that Gil drew further back behind Harry. “During the school year all students stay at Auradon Prep. It’s summer vacation now though, so the school’s closed, save for sports and a few select classes. Students go home for the summer.”

Harry frowned. “So what do you do with all of us?”

“Well, some of them, like Dizzy and Evie, stay with people who have volunteered to take them in for a few months.” Ben said. “But, yes, everybody else stays here.” Ben glanced at Gil and smiled encouragingly. “If you really don’t like it here, then we’ll work something else out, okay?”

“...Okay.” Gil said in a quiet voice that just didn’t suit him. Harry didn’t look as willing to agree, but he didn’t argue against the idea. Glad that they had settled that, at least for the moment, Ben lead the way inside. He had wanted to give them at least a brief tour, but that plan went out the window when they saw Ben’s mother waiting there for them, and Ben got the feeling that she had been waiting there the entire time that they had been gone.

“Ben, Adam, you’re back.” Ben winced at the relief in his mother’s voice. He hadn’t meant to worry her, but what had he expected? They had gone to the Isle of the Lost, and their little trip had taken much longer than they had first guessed. Of course she was worried. Ben’s mother looked towards Harry and Gil. “I see you brought home more guests.” Ben was relieved that she sounded more amused than annoyed. She didn’t at all mind having so many kids staying at the castle. She actually kinda enjoyed it.

“Mom, this is Harry and Gil.” Ben introduced them. “Guys, this is my mother.”

“Wait,” Gil drew slightly away from Harry and gave a small smile. “You’re Belle?”

“Gil.” Harry growled in a low tone.

“You’re a lot prettier than my dad said you were.” Gil finished. Harry groaned and looked like he was mentally preparing himself for a fight.

“Your father?” Ben’s mother frowned in confusion and slight concern. “Who is your father?”

“Uh,” Gil’s eyes widened in alarm and panic. “Nobody! I mean, obviously somebody, but nobody important.” Gil chuckled nervously. “I mean, it’s not like he’s Gaston or anything.” Gil grew pale when he realized what he had just said.

“What?!” Ben flinched at his father’s shout, and poor Gil looked like he was about to have panic attack. Suddenly, so many things made sense. Gil’s fear of Ben’s father was completely reasonable, as he had probably grown up hearing some pretty horrifying things. And Ben remembered Gil saying some things when he had first gone to the Isle of the Lost that indicated who his father was, and Ben just hadn’t thought about it.

He should have though. He should have known that Gil was one of Gaston’s sons, not because he would see him any differently, because he wouldn’t, but because maybe then Ben could have at least warned his parents and they wouldn’t have reacted so badly when they met him. Ben knew that his father wasn’t really mad that Gil was the son of Gaston, he was just surprised, and he was letting his surprise turn to a reaction that he was more familiar with.

Anger.

“I-I’m sorry!” Gil stammered. He shut his eyes tight and put his arms over his head, as though he was afraid that he was going to get hit. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” Gil just kept on muttering apologies.

“What does it matter?” Harry asked in a dark tone that sent shivers down Ben’s spine. The pirate approached Ben’s father and looked just seconds away from stabbing him with his hook, which they hadn’t been able to pry away from him. “Gil is nothing like his father.”

“Why should I trust you on that?” Ben’s father growled. He had a tendency to do that when he was feeling protective. “How do we know that he’s not just here to stab us in the back the first chance that he gets?”

“I wo-” Gil whimpered and seemed to draw in on himself. “I-I…” Ben frowned Gil couldn’t even speak. He was upset, and absolutely terrified, and Ben knew that it would only get worse before it got better. He had to do something before his dad really lost his temper. Ben rarely interfered when his dad was angry, to his knowledge only his mom was brave enough to stand up to him, but he couldn’t just sit back. Not this time.

“Dad, stop it!” Ben hated shouting, but he had to make sure that his voice was heard. “Can’t you see what you’re doing?” Ben gestured towards Gil, who looked like he was worried he was about to be attacked. “You’re scaring him.” That was a complete understatement. “He’s more afraid of you than he is of his brothers, and they tried to kill him earlier today.” 

“What?” Ben’s mom pushed past the others as she approached Gil. The blond tried to shy away from her, but Ben’s mom wouldn’t let him. “Are you hurt?” She took his face in her hands and looked him over for any sign of injury. Gil’s eyes widened like he didn’t know what was going on. “Why would your brothers do something like that?”

“Because he defended them.” Harry glared at Ben’s father darkly.

“He didn’t know who I was at the time.” Ben’s father argued.

“But he knew exactly who I was.” Ben reminded him. Ben’s father looked like he still wanted to argue about this, he had always had a hard time with dropping an argument, but a sharp look from Ben’s mother silenced him before he could even say anything.

“Adam!” Ben’s mother’s tone was as sharp as her look. “This boy defended you and our son, and you repay him by attacking him?”

“I wasn’t attacking him.” Ben’s father defended himself.

“You weren’t-” Harry seethed. “That is exactly what you were doing, you self-righteous-”

“Enough!” Ben’s mother looked over all of them with a stern and warning gaze. Her message was clear. She didn’t want to hear another word. She turned back to Gil and her gaze softened. “Gil, I need you to answer me, alright? Are you injured.”

Gil looked like he wanted to say no. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, but he nodded. “M’shoulder.” Gil muttered. “Shot.” Ben’s mother looked extremely concerned about that, but she kept calm.

“Would you mind if I took a look at it?” Ben’s mother asked. Gil tried to shrug, but quickly learned that it wasn’t a good idea. Ben moved to help Gil move his leather shirt away from the injury so his mother could get a proper look at it. The wound wasn’t bleeding all that much, which was fortunate, but it was dirty and would probably get easily infected if it wasn’t properly taken care of.

“Does it hurt?” Ben’s mother asked.

“...yes.” Gil said reluctantly, like he wanted to say no but couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.

“We may be able to do something about that.” Ben’s mother said kindly. She took Gil’s hand, and he let her. “We should also get the wound cleaned, or else it will just get worse.” Ben’s mother gently began to lead Gil, and Ben was sure that she was taking him to the makeshift infirmary they had set up when kids from the Isle of the Lost had started to stay with them. Gil cast a pleading look towards Harry as they left, though Ben wasn’t sure if the look was him asking Harry to come with him, or asking him to not start a fight.

Either way, Gil’s glance was ignored.

“I’m warning ye now, ye scurvy baboon, if ye don’ leave my mate alone, I will find the most barnacle ridden ship in this land, and keelhaul the lot of you.” Harry hissed. Ben didn’t exactly know what keelhauling was, but he thought that it was a safe bet to say that it wasn’t anything good.

“Harry, you can’t go around threatening people.” Ben reminded him, and he got the feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time that he would have to explain this very same thing. He looked from the pirate to his father. “Why don’t we all just calm down and stop making assumptions about people that we’ve just met.”

Ben’s father still looked extremely frustrated, but he had calmed down enough to realize that he had overreacted. Harry didn’t look the least bit satisfied or apologetic, but Ben was beginning to think that this was just normal for Harry.

“I’ll drop the matter for now if you answer one question for me, Beast.” Harry scowled at Ben’s father “Do you want to send Gil back to the Isle of the Lost?”

Ben felt his breath catch in his throat. He hoped that his father was rational enough to realize that he couldn’t do that. Gil’s family would kill him, and they all knew it. If Ben’s father really wanted to sent him back…

“No.” Ben breathed a sigh of relief when he heard his father’s answer. “I have no desire to send him back.” Ben was relieved to have heard that, but Harry wasn’t satisfied yet.

“What if ye decide that Gil doesn’t meet your standards here?” Harry asked. “What is you don’t think he’s good enough to stay in Auradon.” Ben had no idea what his father would want to do if that happened, because he didn’t know what he would do. None of the kids so far who had come to Auradon had caused enough trouble for them to need to send them elsewhere. What would they do if that happened?

“We’ll figure something else out.” Ben’s father said. “But he’s not going back there.”

Harry was tense and quiet for a moment. “...Good do know we’re on the same page here.” Even though they all knew that they were barely even in the same book, let alone the same page. At least they had all calmed down enough to stop fighting about the matter...for now. Ben couldn’t shake the feeling that they would be having a very similar argument sometime soon. They would have to cross that bridge when they came to it though. For now, Ben would just be grateful that they had at least stopped things before death threats or plans to send them back to the isle came into play.

Ben would take the tense feelings of a reluctant truce over the angry threats caused by fear and protectiveness any day. He just wondered if there would ever be a day when he wouldn’t have to deal with either scenario.

Somehow, he doubted it, but it was nice to wish for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben is an interesting character to write. He's a super sweet guy, but because of his upbringing there's only so much that he understands about life on the Isle of the Lost. He's trying though, oh boy, is he trying. Someday he's going to have to learn that he can't please everybody. Even so, I think that he's a good king. He just lacks experience.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a good portion of this chapter is a flashback. I normally indicate flashbacks with italics, but I don't know how to make that happen on AO3, so, uh, just keep an eye out for it and don't get super confused when you get to it.  
> Speaking of the flashback, I feel I should warn you, there is some food torture in this chapter. It got more intense than I had intended, so be wary.

“Alright, children, let’s try this again.” The strange lady in blue said in a tired voice. She had previously introduced herself as the Fairy Godmother, but Gil didn’t think that he believed her. She didn’t even look like a fairy. And Gil had always thought that a fairy godmother was supposed to be nice, and this woman...wasn’t. She acted like she was, but it felt kinda fake and made him feel like she was treating him, and all of the other students, like they were five years old.

The so called fairy godmother gestured pointed to the blackboard with her stick “What should you do if you find a child lost alone in the woods?” Gil was really getting tired of all of these hypothetical questions, and it made him really not look forward to taking this ‘Remedial Goodness 101’ class. He thought there wasn’t supposed to be any school in the summer, and yet they still had to go to Auradon Prep just to take this one class. It was really annoying. Gil really didn’t like school in the first place, and now he was expected to go to a class during the summer? That just wasn’t fair. The worst part of the class though was when he got called on.

“Gil,” Fairy Godmother looked at him expectantly and the blond grimaced. “Do you want to try this question?”

“Uh...No?” Gil said honestly. His answer made Harry snicker, though the Fairy Godmother wasn’t nearly as amused. Her smile became strained and even more fake than before. Gil knew that he was really trying her patience, and he wasn’t even trying to. He didn’t even understand what he had done wrong. She had asked if he wanted to try to answer the question, and he had said that he didn’t. Why wasn’t she upset that he had answered her? It couldn’t be because he had answered wrong, because there shouldn’t be any right or wrong answers when it came to being asked one’s opinion

“Well, why don’t you give it a try anyways?” Fairy Godmother was really trying hard to stay patient at this point. Gil didn’t want to upset her even more, so as much as he didn’t want to do it, he decided to give it a shot.

“Uh…” Gil squinted his eyes at the board where the Fairy Godmother had said that she had written the question and the possible answers. He couldn’t understand what the words were though. He didn’t even recognize them as words at all. It looked like he would have to do this from memory. “C?”

Fairy Godmother sighed in frustration and disappointment, which made Gil shrink back in his seat. “No, Gil, the right answer is not to lead the child deeper into the forest and abandon them there.” Gil felt his heart drop. That hadn’t been the answer that he had meant at all. He had gotten all mixed up. How could he have let that happen for the sixth time in this one class? Gil was ready for a break, and so was the Fairy Godmother.

“I think that’s enough for today.” The tired woman said in a strained voice, and Gil had never been so relieved for a class to end. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Great.

“Can’t wait.” Harry muttered in as sarcastic of a voice as he could muster. “Can you believe they’re making us take this pointless class?”

“Can you believe how horrible I am at this class?” Gil groaned as he sunk his head onto the desk.

“Hey, I didn’t get any questions right either.” Harry reminded him.

“You were messing up on purpose.” Gil said. “That doesn’t count.”

Harry sighed. “Alright, if you really want to do well in this class, and I don’t understand why you would, then we’ll figure out how to make that happen.”

Gil groaned and curled in on himself slightly. At Harry’s words Gil felt the knot in his stomach that had been growing since the previous day when he had first arrived in Auradon get even bigger. Harry thought that the class was pointless, but he was still willing to help Gil figure it out. Usually, this would make the blond feel happy and grateful. At that moment though, all he felt was despair and guilt. His friend shouldn’t have to force himself to do something that he hated just because Gil couldn’t do it on his own.

“So, I imagine you don’t actually think the best thing to do in that last situation is to abandon the child.” Harry said. Gil scowled and turned his head so that he was facing Harry, though still laid against the desk.

“Of course not.” Gil didn’t think that anybody would actually think that that was the best option if they were trying to be good. “The...the last option is the right answer.” Gil didn’t remember which letter it was, or exactly what the answer said, but he knew that it was the last one.

Harry looked towards the board and nodded. “Yes, it is.” He turned back to Gil. “So why did you choose C?”

“Because C’s the last letter.” Gil said plainly. 

“No, it’s the third one,” Harry said. “There are two other options after it, D and E. E’s the last letter.

“...No it’s not.” Gil frowned in confusion and lifted his head off the desk. “I remember, you and Uma said that C was the last of all the letters.”

Now Harry was the one frowning in confusion. “...You mean in the alphabet?”

“Yeah.” Gil nodded confidently, but when he saw the look on Harry’s face he felt his confidence slip away. “Am I wrong?” He had been so sure.

“Gillie, Z is the last letter of the alphabet.” Harry said with more patience and understanding in his tone than Gil had ever heard before, and he absolutely hated it. Especially since Harry’s words made absolutely no sense.

“That’s what I said,” Gil said in a slightly raised voice, because he just felt even more confused than before. “C.”

“Not C,” Harry corrected. “Z.”

“...I can’t hear the difference.” Gil said. He heard Harry sigh in defeat. 

“Nah, I didn’t figure you would.” Harry sighed in defeat and glanced towards a nearby window, a longing look in his eyes. “Uma was always better at explaining things like this in a way that you would understand.” Harry’s eyes became glossy, as though he was seeing something that wasn’t really there. “I wish she was here.  
The knot in Gil’s stomach twisted up even more. It got so bad that he actually felt like he was going to be sick. He needed something to distract him from what was happening.

“Hey, guys.” 

Oh, thank goodness for Ben.

“Little king,” Harry greet Ben in a mocking tone, though Gil could hear the subtle tone that meant that he was just teasing. “What makes you grace us with your presence.”

“Just wanted to see how you guys were doing.” Ben looked around and quickly noticed that Fairy Godmother and the few other students who had been in the class weren’t in the room anymore. “Are you guys done already?”

“Aye, we are.” Harry said.

“I think we scared the lady away.” Gil said. “I mean, not scared scared, but, I don’t know annoyed her away.”

“Oh,” Ben slowly nodded his head, though he still didn’t look like he fully understood. “So...not a very good first day?”

“It was horrible.” Gil frowned. He gestured to the board. “I don’t get any of this stuff.”

“Don’t worry,” Ben reassured him. “Everybody struggles with knowing the difference between good and bad sometimes.” 

Gil tilted his head. “That’s not what I was confused about.” That stuff was easy to understand.

Ben frowned slightly in confusion. “Then what-”

“Hey, here’s an idea,” Harry cut in. “How about we stop talking about the class that I didn’t even want to go to in the first place? Now, I don’t know about you two, but I’m feeling rather hungry.”

“That’s no problem.” Ben smiled kindly. “The cafeteria is open for lunch, because this class and the tourney practices usually end around noon. We can get something to eat there.” Ben turned towards Gil. “Are you hungry too? I noticed that you didn’t eat a lot at breakfast.”

Gil forced himself to not look in Harry’s direction, because he really didn’t want to see the alarmed look on the pirate’s face. Harry worried too much. “I guess I could eat.” Gil wasn’t really in the mood for food, but he was kinda hungry. He hadn’t eaten much the day before. He would have eaten breakfast if Ben’s father hadn’t been sitting right across the table, which made Gil’s stomach twist up into so many knots that food didn’t seem all that appetizing.

“Come on.” Ben took GIl’s hand and dragged him to his feet, which surprised him a little bit. Gil wasn’t used to physical contact, not like this. On the Isle, there was rarely any physical contact, not between relatives, friends, or even lovers...well, Gil supposed there was contact going on even on the Isle, but certainly nothing that could be seen as intimate and gentle, because those were seen as weakness. Gil wondered if everybody in Auradon was so touchy feely, and if they were, would he ever get used to it? He hoped he did, because it felt really nice.

Ben was just a nice guy. Gil knew that everybody in Auradon wasn’t just like him, but if at least some of them were as nice as the young king was then maybe the place wasn’t as bad as Harry and Uma liked to say it was.

“Ben!” Gil flinched slightly when he heard the slightly harsher tone, and then scowled to himself. He was being so pathetic, jumping at the smallest sign of a threat. He hated it when he got like this. His scowl deepened when he saw the purple haired girl making her way towards them. “There you are. I heard you were around today, but I hadn’t seen you.”

“Sorry Mal, I’m still busy today.” And by Ben’s tone Gil could tell that he was sincerely sorry. “I wanted to be around in case Gil or Harry had trouble adjusting.” Mal turned her gaze away from her boyfriend and towards Gil and his friend, and she didn’t look very happy.

“Okay, so you were serious when you said that you brought them over.” Mal frowned and crossed her arms. “Are you sure having them here is a good idea? It sounded like a pretty spur of the moment kind of decision.” Gil drew back slightly and he could feel Harry become tense next to him. On principle, neither boy liked or trusted Mal because of how often they had heard Uma complain about her. But why did Mal seem to hate them? They hadn’t done anything to her. True, they had kidnapped Ben that one time, but they hadn’t actually hurt him.

“Mal, I told you last night, both me and my dad thought that even though there were risks to bringing them over, there were even more risks to leaving them there.” Ben said, and Gil wondered just how much he had told his girlfriend.

Mal sighed, clearly not pleased. “So I guess Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-psycho are here to stay?”

“Mal, please.” Ben took her hand and sent her a pleading look, though there was a bit of a scolding glare in there too. “Don’t do this right now. They have just as much a right to be here as you do. Just give them a chance, okay?”

Mal glared in their direction. “The chance to what? Fool me with their charm and then stab us all in the back when we’re least expecting it? Because I wouldn’t put it past either of them.” With one last cold glare Mal stormed off, and Gil couldn’t tell whether he was more reminded of Maleficent when she was extremely annoyed, or a five year old child who was throwing a temper tantrum.

Ben gave Gil and Harry an apologetic look. “I’m sorry about Mal. She still hasn’t gotten over the whole ‘Uma’ thing,” Neither had they. “But I’ll talk to her.” Gil didn’t know whether he should be annoyed or impressed that Ben thought he could take care of this whole thing with a single conversation. “The cafeteria is just down this hall. You can’t miss it.” And with one more apologetic look, Ben was gone after Mal.

Harry rolled his eyes. “It will be a sad day for both Bore-adon and the Isle when little miss perfect over there becomes queen.”

“Yeah,” Gil agreed, then blinked. “Wait, how do you know she’ll become queen?” Sure, she was dating Ben, but they were still a few years from even thinking about marriage, right? And who knew if they were actually going to stay together?

“Forget it.” Harry shook his head, like he often did when Gil didn’t understand something that he thought should be obvious, and Harry just wasn’t in the mood to explain it. 

“Come on, let’s get some food before another self-righteous person decides to proclaim how unworthy they believe we are.” For the first time, Gil wondered if more people in Auradon would treat him and Harry like Mal and Fairy Godmother did instead of the way that Ben did. Gil would be very disappointed if they did. He didn’t mention his concerns to Harry though, because he knew that his friend didn’t truly care.

Sometimes Gil wished that he didn’t care either.

Gil followed Harry down the hall, like Ben had told them, and they did indeed find the cafeteria. It was an easy room to find, considering it was the only room down this hallway. The room was practically empty, with just a few students sitting at the tables. Suddenly Gil felt his concerns and ‘what if’ thoughts slip away to the back of his mind. Maybe it was that there wasn’t as many people here to judge them, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that Gil could smell the food from here.

Gil felt his empty stomach grumble. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. He hadn’t been able to stomach the thought of eating that morning, or even the previous night, but now he just wanted to eat everything that this kingdom had to offer.

Harry seemed to notice how excited Gil was about the prospect of eating, because he shoved him towards where the food was to get him moving. “Don’t just stand there with your jaw on the ground. Go eat something.”

Gil didn’t need to be told twice. He all but ran towards the food, barely even payed attention to Harry, who was just casually strolling behind him. Gil stopped in his tracks when he actually saw all the options. Sure, there had been a lot of food (a lot of food) at breakfast that morning, and dinner the previous night, but there were much more options here.

“Well, isn’t this odd.” Harry commented as he caught up to Gil and joined him in just staring at the food. “How does one go about choosing what to eat?” Gil appreciated that there was a choice at all, but did they really need so many options? How was he supposed to know where to start? He didn’t even know what half of this stuff was.

“Yeah, it’s a bit overwhelming the first time.” Gil and Harry turned to see two familiar faces.

“Oh, hey Jay, Carlos.” Gil grinned at the two boys who used to live on the Isle of the Lost. Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance when he saw them. He didn’t get along with Jay and Carlos...actually, Harry didn’t get along with most people.

“Don’t worry.” Jay said in a teasing voice as he nudged Harry’s arm. “You guys will get used to it. Trust me.” 

“Really?” Gil turned back towards the food and frowned. He suddenly felt a little less hungry than before. “It doesn’t feel like it.” Gil felt like he would never get used to anything in Auradon. Not the food. Not the people. Not the weather. On the surface it was so much better than the way that things were on the Isle, but it was just so different. Gil had gotten used to life on the Isle, it was what he was familiar with, and all of this uncertainty that was just being thrown in his face just felt like too much, even if it was good.

“I kinda felt the same why when I first got here.” Carlos said. The white haired boy joined Gil as Harry and Jay began to get into an argument about one thing or another. 

“Actually, sometimes I still feel that way.” Carlos looked back towards the entrance to the cafeteria and Gil followed his gaze to see a simple looking (in the best way possible), but pretty girl. The girl smiled and waved at Carlos, and he timidly smiled and waved back. “The thing is, as weird as it is here, it is better.”

Gil thought about how the so called Fairy Godmother had talked to him like a child. How Mal thought that he was just there to gain their trust and betray them later, even though that was something that Gil would never do. Even Harry wouldn’t do that kind of thing, he much preferred to stab somebody from the front so he could see their expression. Uma had always been the ‘stab-in-the-back’ one of the three of them.

And even if Gil had any interest in betraying the king, what right did Mal have to judge him for it? Hadn’t that been her plan when she first came to Auradon? And why was everybody judging Uma so terribly for using a love spell thing on the king to make think he was in love with her instead of his actual girlfriend when Mal had done the exact same thing!

It just didn’t seem fair.

Besides all that, Gil also hadn’t slept a wink the previous night because he had been too terrified to sleep. He was staying at the castle that belonged to the man that had not only banished all of them to the Isle of the Lost in the first place, but had killed Gil’s father all those years ago? Gil had grown up hearing horror stories about the Beast, and he was expected to fall asleep with the knowledge that the Beast turned man was just sleeping right down the hallway? That just wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Gil admitted, because this was just his first day in Auradon and he could already see some ugly elements that he just didn’t like. “...but at least the food is better, right?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Carlos said confidently. Gil trusted his word, the food certainly smelled amazing, but he still didn’t actually move to grab anything.

“...I have no idea where to start.” Gil admitted.

“Yeah, most days, neither do I.” Carlos laughed. “I usually just grab a little bit of everything.

It sounded a little wasteful to Gil, but still like a fairly decent idea. He could usually eat a lot, and even if he didn’t eat it all, then he could just give the leftovers to Harry, who for some reason, had allowed himself to be dragged by Jay to a table. So because Carlos’ idea sounded pretty appealing, and Gil was hungry, and he would feel more comfortable if he was next to Harry again, Gil began grabbing a bunch of things. Most of it he put on the tray that Carlos had handed him, some of it he just put directly into his mouth. (he would savor the stuff later. He just needed some food in his stomach). It wasn’t long before Gil’s tray was full, and so was Carlos’, but there was still a lot of food that the blond wanted to try.

“We can always come back for some more.” Carlos suggested as Gil eyed a kind of fruit that had been dipped in some weird brown thing that Carlos called chocolate.

“I don’t want lots more.” Gil said, even though he wasn’t sure. He just couldn’t bring himself to get the idea out of his head that if he turned his back on this food then it would disappear on him and he would never see it again. “Just a little more”

“More?” A condescending and annoyed voice that Gil hadn’t heard before, but he was all too familiar with the tone because it was how his brothers spoke to him constantly. “You two have enough. Leave some food for the rest of us.”

“You think you deserve that food more than us, runt?”

Gil felt his breath get caught in his throat. He didn’t know if it was because of how hungry and exhausted he was, or if it had something to do with what his brothers had done the day before. Or it could just be as simple as hearing such a familiar tone that always set him on edge in a place where he hadn’t been expecting it at all. Whatever the reason, Gil felt as though he wasn’t in Auradon anymore, but back on the Isle of the Lost with his brothers.

And with his father.

It had been a mistake. A stupid, careless mistake. Gil had grown too comfortable around Uma and Harry. They had different rules than home, and different consequences when those rules were broken. Gil had gotten used to their way of doing things that he forgot how things were done under his father’s roof. 

Gaston only really had one rule. Whatever he said, whatever he wanted, that was the way that things had to be. And he said that he gets first dibs on food, Jun and Bronze got second pick, and Gil had to survive on whatever scraps may or may not be left.

Gil knew how to steal food outside of home, so he didn’t starve, he just...went hungry sometimes. Gil had gotten used to the feeling of a mostly empty stomach growing up, so when he started hanging out with Uma and Harry again, and the girl let him eat whatever he wanted from her mother’s shop, whenever he wanted, he had taken her up on her offer.

Gil soon got used to having food without it being forced away from him. He spent more and more time with Uma’s crew, and almost no time at all back home. Once Uma was gone though and Harry threw the crew off the ship, Gil hadn’t had anywhere else to go, he had to return home.

He hadn’t been on his guard the way that he should have been though. When dinner time came Gil restrained himself from eating while his dad and brothers got the food first, but when he saw that they all had some food, he had figured it was okay for him to have something to. Gil had waited for them to eat first, he had remembered to do that much, he had just forgotten that at home, that wasn’t enough.

At home, Gil couldn’t eat anything unless he was told that he could.

“What are you doing?” Gil flinched at his father’s harsh tone.

“I, uh…” Gil swallowed his mouthful of food. “Nothing?” Big mistake.

“Nothing?” Gil yelped in pain and alarm when his father grabbed a fistfull of his hair and dragged him down to more effectively loom over him. “You were stealing from us.”

“N-no.” Gil said, even though there was no use in arguing against his father. “I just-” was hungry. “-forgot.”

“Forgot?” Gil’s father was not amused. He sounded furious. GIl hated it when his dad got mad at him. It seemed to happen whenever the man so much as laid eyes on him. “I guess we’ll just have to teach you a lesson so that you won’t forget again.”

“No!” Gil’s eyes widened in a panic. He tried to scramble away from his dad, but Jun came forward and kept him where he was with an iron grip. “No, no, no, no, no!” Gil began to shake so badly that his legs probably would have given out beneath him if Jun didn’t have such a tight grip on him. “Dad, please!” Gil’s cries were ignored.

Across the table Bronze grabbed one of his bowls, the one that had raw egg in it. Bronze quickly grabbed the yolks with his hand, shoved them into his mouth all at once, which made Gil shudder, and handed the bowl of egg whites to their father. 

Gil bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed, just to keep himself from screaming in panic. He preferred the pain in his lip to the thought of opening his mouth even the slightest bit. He knew what his dad had in mind for him, and he really didn’t want it.

Gil’s fear and stubbornness couldn’t protect him from his dad’s brute strength. Gil whimpered in pain when his dad harshly grabbed his jaw and yanked his mouth open. Before Gil could struggle, or beg, or even think, his dad poured the raw egg whites into his mouth. Gil tried to yank his head away and spit out the disgusting, rotten, so so wrong liquid, but he couldn’t. Gil’s dad put one hand over his mouth, and the other hand tightly on his throat.

Gil couldn’t spit it out. He couldn’t get his throat to work right so he could swallow it, not that he would want to anyways. Gil struggled uselessly to get away, but he could barely move. His dad and brother had too tight a grip on it. Gil knew that there was only one way to make this end, and that was to just wait it out and hope that his instincts took over sooner rather than later.

Gil was trapped with the hated liquid in his mouth. The rotten flavor made his mouth burn. The awkward texture tickled his mouth in the exact wrong way. He had to get it out. 

Gil’s head lurched forward as much as it possibly could as his gag reflex got set off. It did nothing to get the liquid out of his mouth, and it just left him choking. A moment later he couldn’t do anything to keep himself from just gagging again as his body reacted to the egg whites again, though this time the reflex left the additional taste of bile in his mouth and made his throat feel raw.

At least he was almost done.

With one last gag reflex Gil felt even more bile come up his throat and into his already full mouth. He didn’t have a choice. He needed to get it out. Once again. Gil instinctively lurched forward, and, fortunately, his father and brother let him.

Gil fell to his knees as he bent over and quickly expelled the vile combination of egg white and vomit from his mouth. Even when it was all out, Gil still couldn’t keep himself from gagging and dry-heaving in a vain attempt to get the feel of the eggs out of his mouth. 

“Get him to his room.” Gil tried to shrink away when he heard his father’s orders to his brothers. Not a moment later he felt two pairs of hands grip at his arms so tightly that it felt like it was cutting off his circulation. Gil couldn’t get his feet to cooperate with him, so he could do little to resist his brothers as they harshly dragged him to his room, carelessly threw him in, and locked the door.

Gil let out a choked sob. He put a hand over his mouth to try to stifle the sound, because he knew that he would be in huge trouble if he was caught crying again, but he just couldn’t stop. He felt sick to his stomach. He was hungrier than he had been in months. And he hated being back in this house, back in this room where there were no windows and no lights. Only darkness.

Darkness, loneliness, pain, and fear. Those were the only things that existed for Gil when he was living under his father’s roof. And it had been stupid for him to forget that for even a second.

So stupid.

“Hey!” Gil let out a shuddering breath when he heard Harry’s intense, furious voice. Harry was there, they were in Auradon, and Gil wasn’t back on the Isle with his family. He was fine. It was fine.

Everything was just fine.

Harry put a hand on Gil’s uninjured shoulder and pulled him back ever so slightly. He was trying to protect him, without letting others know that that was his intention. As unfocused as Gil was sure Auradon made Harry feel, he looked after his own. Gil knew that Harry wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

“Jus’ what do ye think yer doin’?” Harry’s voice was low, deep, and his accent was more obvious than it usually was. Gil knew all too well that the more angry Harry was, the more obvious his accent was, so he must have been really upset. “Wha’ makes ye think ye get to say that ye deserve ta eat more than my mate does?”

The stranger who had spoken was a blond haired boy with very judgemental eyes. There were a couple of other boys standing behind him, and they looked about as judgemental and annoyed as their apparent leader was. Still, Gil knew that he definitely just didn’t like that first boy. He just reminded him of his brothers, and Gil didn’t have the excuse that they were related to keep himself from really disliking the guy.

“What?” The guy’s eyes widened shock and confusion. “Are you kidding me? I didn’t say that.”

“You might as well have, Chad.” Carlos muttered in annoyance. “I’ve told you a dozen times, words are interpreted differently on the Isle.”

“Well then, maybe people like him should have stayed on the Isle of the Lost and spare us all from having to deal with this.” The stranger, Chad, said. Harry’s reaction was immediate.

“What?!” Harry had been angry before, but he was absolutely furious now. Harry’s grip on Gil’s shoulder became almost painful before it was released all together. Gil could practically see the smoke coming off from Harry as the young pirate stormed over towards Chad and the other boys with such intensity that they actually backed away from him.

“What makes ye think,” Harry casually grabbed a large knife that was lying around near the meat, probably to cut it, though Harry likely had plans for cutting into something other than his lunch. “That ye have any right ta say that, ye two toned, underbellied son of a siren?” Gil had no doubts that Harry’s full intention was to drive that meat knife straight into Chad’s stomach, but Jay intervened before he could even get close.

“Knock it off, Hook.” Jay struggled to hold Jay back, but he didn’t let him go. Jay was physically larger and stronger than Harry was, so that didn’t come as much of a shock. “You’re going to get us all in trouble.”

“I don’ care!” Harry screamed in frustration and fury when, in his attempt to get away from Jay, he accidentally dropped his knife.

“You all deserve to be on that island.” Chad’s voice cracked, which showed just how scared of Harry, of all of them, he was. “You shouldn’t be around normal people.”

“Normal?” Gil frowned. “What do you mean by normal?” In Gil’s experience, there was no such thing as normal. At least not in a universal, unarguable term. Everybody looked different. Everybody acted different. Everybody had their different ways of thinking, and their different ways of reacting to their thoughts. How could there be some standard for ‘normal’ when everybody was so different? Gil just didn’t understand it at all.

Chad glared at him, though Gil didn’t entirely understand if he had done anything wrong or not. “I mean that people like us shouldn’t be forced to be around people who can’t bother to learn basic communication skills,” Chad looked pointedly at Gil, who was just taken aback. Was Chad talking about him? Why? What did he even mean? 

“And we definitely shouldn’t be around crazy psychos who, honestly, would be better off locked up.” Chad finished.

And Gil saw red.

Gil felt like he wasn’t even in control of himself anymore. It was as though his most basic instincts just took over, and one of Gil’s most intense instincts was to protect Harry and Uma. Nobody was allowed to hurt them. Nobody was allowed to badmouth them. Nobody was allowed to treat them like they were less than amazing.  
Especially not some spoiled rotten prince.

Gil wanted to teach the guy a lesson, and he did it in the simplest way that he knew how, with brute strength.

Gil grabbed the closest thing within his reach, which just so happened to be his food tray, and swung it right into Chad’s smug, perfect little face. If he had been thinking clearly, Gil would have instantly regretted his choice of weapon because there had still been a ton of food on the tray, and when he swung it it all went flying everywhere, which was such a waste. Not to mention that it had thrown off his swing and weakened the blow.

At that moment though, the only thought going through Gil’s head was that he had never felt so much satisfaction in giving somebody a bloody nose. And seeing all the food scattered over Chad’s clothes was just an added bonus.

Gil didn’t want for the shock to sink in. He dropped the tray and immediately tackled Chad to the ground. After that...Gil wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that. There was a reason why Gil prefered to use weapons as opposed to just his bare fists and body weight. Whenever Gil fought with just his own two hands, for one reason or another, he just ended up mentally blacking out. 

Gil knew there had to be punches involved from both ends, but he didn’t remember delivering any hits, and he definitely didn’t remember feeling Chad’s punches in the heat of the moment. Gil was only brought out of his mad haze when a female’s authoritative voice cut through the fight.

“What on Earth do you all think you are doing?” And that would be the not so Fairy Godmother. And here Gil had thought that she had sounded furious and unimpressed in their little class, she sounded ten times worse there. “What is the meaning of this?”

Gil was pulled away from Chad by Carlos, who was surprisingly strong for his size. Gil would have jumped right back into teaching Chad a lesson, Fairy Godmother or not, but then he caught a glimpse of Carlos’ face and he felt his adrenalin ease away.

Carlos had a split lip that definitely hadn’t been there a minute ago. Had...had Carlos involved himself in the fight? Gil didn’t know Carlos all that well, but he couldn’t imagine him getting involved in such a physical fight.

“Why are you hurt?” Gil asked, though not in a judgemental, angry way. He was just curious, because he really didn’t get it.

“One of the guys was trying to attack you from behind.” Carlos winced and licked his lip slightly. “I wasn’t very good at stopping him though.” 

Gil felt a pit form in his stomach all over again. How could the people in Auradon claim to be the good guys when they were the ones going around attacking people from behind? And as for Carlos...why would he go get himself hurt for Gil’s sake when they barely even knew each other? It just didn’t make sense.

“Fairy Godmother, he’s the one who started it.” Chad pointed to Gil accusingly. “He just attacked me without reason and-”

“Without reason?” Gil clenched his fists and glared at Chad. “So it doesn’t matter what you did or said, this is all my fault?”

“Enough!” Fairy Godmother glared at them scoldingly. “I don’t care who said what, or who threw the first punch. All of you were behaving like animals, and it will not be tolerated here.” Fairy Godmother sighed in disappointment and put her hands on her hips. The look that she was giving all of them just made Gil feel annoyed. “You should all know better, so you will all be getting detention.”

“What?” Chad looked like he had never been disciplined or gotten any punishment ever in his life. It was both amusing and pathetic. “You can’t do that.”

“I can, and I have.” Fairy Godmother firmly pointed to the door. “All of you to my room, now.” Gil didn’t really want to go back to that classroom so soon after leaving it, but he didn’t complain. Whether he liked it or not, Fairy Godmother was a person in authority, and Gil wasn’t about to test her patience on purpose. At least, not until he knew for sure how far he could push her and how badly punished he would get for it.

“And as for you two.” Fairy Godmother pointed at Jay and Harry, who were still in the same position as they had been before, with Jay holding Harry back so he didn’t burn the school to the ground. “Consider this your first and only warning.”

Gil felt relieved that Harry wasn’t in trouble too. That relief was overshadowed though by feelings of irritation, guilt, and slight fear. Gil had thought that Auradon was supposed to be the better place, but in some ways it was almost as bad as the Isle. Gil didn’t think he would ever be good enough to meet everybody’s impossible expectation, and it wasn’t fair how he was judged for not being perfect, but everybody else could screw up even worse then he did and they didn’t think that they deserved even a slap on the wrist for it.

Gil had so many conflicted feelings about being in Auradon. He felt safe here, except when he didn’t. He felt like people here had his back and wanted him to succeed, except when they made it clear how much they hated him. Life hadn’t been normal on the Isle of the Lost, but at least it had been consistent. In Auradon though, not even Gil’s emotions could remain consistent.

He just felt so tired of dealing with this place, and he hadn’t even been there for a whole day. Gil got the terrible feeling that maybe Auradon wasn’t as great as everybody else made it out to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geeze, this chapter just went on and on, and I only got to about the halfway point to what I had originally planned, so I guess this chapter became a two parter. It still works though.  
> As for the whole egg thing, honestly, that hadn't been my original plan. I knew that I had wanted Gaston, Jun, and Bronze to have some form of punishment for Gil when he ate out of line, and my first thought just went to forcing him to throw up and then keeping him from eating anything. I was looking up how one goes about forcing themselves to throw up, because I wanted to write it accurately I guess, and when I saw that somebody could get sick just by gargling egg whites, I knew that that was the method I had to use. I mean, we know that the Gastons would have eggs on hand, and I had previously mentioned that Gil likes all food except for eggs. And I figure that if you don't want somebody to eat something, then forcing them to not quite eat something that they hate will probably do the trick.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, there's a bit of a panic attack in this chapter. I don't think it's all that explicit, the character is more confused than anything while it's going on, but it's still there. Just so you know.

Gil hadn’t known what to expect from detention in Auradon. On the Isle of the Lost, detention mostly involved whipping or being locked up in the school’s dungeons overnight. Nothing too serious. It didn’t really seem like something that they would do in Auradon though. Maybe an Auradon detention was just a little “I’m disappointed in you” speech. Yeah, that kinda sounded about right.

Gil soon learned that detention in Auradon was neither of those things. No, it was something a thousand times worse. 

“Uh, what are we supposed to do?” Gil asked the Fairy Godmother, even though he knew what she would say. He had asked this same question fives times already, and five times she had answered the same way.

“As I said the first time,” The woman looked even more annoyed and her smile looked even more forced than it did during their class a short time ago. Whatever patience she had left, it was almost spent. “I expect all of you to answer these questions in short paragraphs.” She gestured to the blackboard where the supposed questions were. “It’s not difficult, and it won’t take more than a few minutes,” Gil winced at those words. She had no idea. “But none of you will be allowed to leave until each and every one of you is done.” The Fairy Godmother looked directly at Gil. “And this is the last time I’m going to be explaining this. Understood?”

There were mutters of complaint and grumbles of annoyance from most every boy in the room. Still, a few moments later Gil heard the slight rustling of papers and scratching of pencils and pens. Everybody had started working on their papers. Gil had every intention to do the same, he just didn’t know where to start.

Gil stared blankly down at his paper for a few moments, and then lifted his head to stare at the blackboard, as though hoping that it would give him the answers. Everybody else seemed to understand the instructions well enough, but Gil...didn’t. If you asked him, he wouldn’t have even thought that whatever was on the board was instructions at all. He wouldn’t have even guessed that they were words. They all just looked like scribbles and loops. How was anybody supposed to interpret that?

Gil felt his stomach begin to twist up again, and he knew that he needed to calm down. Deep breath in through the nose, and then out through the mouth. Just like Harry’s older sister had taught them. As for the writing...Gil still had no idea what he was supposed to do. He wasn’t good at this sort of thing. He wouldn’t hesitate to call himself stupid if he wasn’t afraid that Uma would punish him terribly for it, like she did whenever anybody else tried to say it about him.

It was okay though. Everything was okay. Gil could do this, he knew that he could. He just had to...had to...focus. Right. That was what Uma always used to say to him whenever something like this happened. He just needed to focus and...and...he forgot what he was supposed to do afterwards. It was something easy, but very important. If he could just remember...nope, nothing.

Gil wondered if Carlos would have any idea of what he should do. He glanced over to the seat next of him and couldn’t help but let out a slightly noise of disbelief when he saw that Carlos had already written everything. He was completely done, and Gil hadn’t even gotten started. Gil had known that Carlos was smart, but he hadn’t known how fast he was at writing. Sure, Carlos probably started the second the instructions were written on the board, but still.

Because Carlos wasn’t writing his paper anymore, he was busying himself with other things. Gil recognized the device in Carlos’ hands as a phone, but he didn’t know what he was doing with it. It kinda looked like he was pushing buttons and making more scribble loops appear. Gil frowned tightly. Why were these weird symbols that people called letters everywhere in Auradon? It gave him a headache just to think about it all.

“Keep your eyes on your own papers.” Fairy Godmother said sharply from the front of the room, and Gil knew that he was talking to her. He reluctantly went back to staring at his paper. Was she worried that he would copy from Carlos’ work? Granted, it was a fair concern. If Gil thought for a second that he would actually be able to copy Carlos’ ‘words’ then he would do it in an instant, but he knew that it wouldn’t work all that well. He would just end up messing it up in one way or another.

Just like he normally did.

No, no! No thinking like that. Uma said so (Uma wasn’t there). Gil just needed to focus (He couldn’t do this). He just had to follow the instructions on the board (he didn’t know how to do that). Easy (impossible). Gil just needed to get this done and he could leave (he wanted to go home). He just needed to pick up the pencil (what home?). Use it to write on the paper (The Isle?). Do what the Fairy Godmother wanted (Ben’s castle?). Just do it! (he was dead either way). Breath in (his stomach was hurting again). Breath out (make it stop!).

“Fairy Godmother?” Gil blinked when he heard Ben’s voice. He turned to see the young king standing in the doorway, patiently. “Can I talk to Carlos? It will only take a minute.”

“I suppose so.” The Fairy Godmother didn’t look all that happy with the request, but she allowed it anyways. “Just have him back in here when you’re done.”

“Of course.” Ben gestured for Carlos to join him out in the hallway, which he did all too eagerly. Gil wondered what Ben needed to talk to him about. What was so important that it couldn’t wait until Carlos was available? Gil thought that maybe if he concentrated enough he would be able to hear what they were saying and...no! No. Bad Gil. He needed to focus. He needed to...he needed to...what was he doing again?

Gil blinked at his still blank paper and then looked back up to the board, and then back to his paper. Right, he was supposed to be writing down the answers to some questions that were written up on the board. What a ridiculous and unnecessary punishment. If the Fairy Godmother really wanted to know what was going through their heads (Gil assumed that was what the point of this was) then why couldn’t she just ask them and then have them answer with words too? It would be so much easier, for all of them.

Or, at the very least it would be easier for him. But, of course, what did his opinion matter? He was just the stupid kid from the Isle of the Lost. His opinion didn’t count for anything. It didn’t on the Isle, and it certainly didn’t in Auradon. What did anybody else care that he couldn’t do this stuff? It wasn’t their problem that he was too stupid to understand simple instructions. It wasn’t their fault that he was too stupid to figure this stuff out. It wasn’t on them that he was just so stupid, stupid, stupid!

“Gil?” The blond yelped when he felt someone touch his arm. Gil’s eyes widened and he turned so quickly towards the person that had startled him that he almost fell out of his seat. They caught him though. Gil breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was just Ben. His heart was still racing though. Gil hated it when he got all jumpy like this.

“Gil, are you okay?” Ben’s voice was quiet. He sounded concerned, though Gil wasn’t sure what he could be worried about.

“I’m...fine?” Gil didn’t really know.

“You’re shaking.” Ben observed. Gil blinked and looked down at his hands. They were, indeed, shaking. Pretty badly, actually. Enough that Ben, who still had a gentle hand on his arm, could feel it. “And you look kinda pale. Is something wrong?”

“I...I can’t do this.” Gil muttered.

“Can’t do what?” Ben asked. Gil shook his head.

“This!” Gil shoved his paper away from him. “That!” he gestured wildly to the blackboard. “I can’t do any of it.”

Ben was quiet for a moment. He was thinking, choosing his next words carefully. Gil was never very good at that kind of thing. “Gil,” Ben’s voice was even quieter, just a whisper. Whatever he was going to say, he didn’t want anybody else overhearing. “Can you...do you know how to read? Or write?”

Gil bit his lip and felt himself grow tense. Of course that was what Ben thought. Sometimes Gil thought the same thing too. The thing was, while he had never been able to get the hang of writing, he could read. Just...not like this. Gil could only read things a certain way, and he kept on forgetting what that way was, no matter how many times Uma told him. Gil just couldn’t remember it, because he was just so stupid, and useless, and…

The knot that had been in Gil’s stomach suddenly turned into a harsh stab of pain that made him let out a noise that was a mix between a groan and a whimper. Gil drew his arms tight against his stomach to try to stop the pain. He tried to curl in on himself and draw his legs up close, but the desk just got in his way. He felt stuck. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breath.

“Gil!” Ben pulled at his arm and dragged him away from the desk. Gil didn’t even bother trying to stand on his own two legs. As soon as he wasn’t stuck behind the desk anymore, Gil just curled in tight on himself and sat on the ground. He didn’t feel any better than before, but he felt like he should feel better. He felt like he could breath...except, no, he still didn’t feel like he could breath. Wait a second, could he breath or not?

“Gil, calm down.” Ben grabbed Gil’s arms and forced him to not curl up so tightly. “You’re hyperventilating.” Oh, so he was breathing. That was a relief...wait.

“What’s going on over there?” Fairy Godmother asked. Gil would be surprised that it had taken her so long to get involved if he didn’t start to feel worse at the very thought of her seeing him like this. Everybody in the room probably thought that he was pathetic enough as it is, and now he was just showing them just how weak he was, just because he was freaking out over nothing and couldn’t calm down!

“He’s panicking.” Carlos said quietly, but firmly. “We need to get him out of here.”

“Gil, can you stand?” Ben asked. Gil knew that he could, he just really, really didn’t want to. He didn’t want to move and draw attention to himself. But he also didn’t want to just sit there and draw even more attention to himself. He wished that there was a possibility where he could just teleport away from the situation and magically be somewhere else, but he couldn’t. He had to take action and actually do something.

Even with that knowledge, it took Gil a few long moments to convince himself to do something so easy as nod his head. Thankfully, that was all he needed to do. At his gesture, Gil felt Ben pull him to his feet and begin to guide him out of the room. Gil numbly let himself be led, because he was just too darn tired to fight. Gil was vaguely aware of Carlos following them, but he really didn’t care enough to argue about it.

They didn’t go very far. Ben just lead them down the hallway and around the corner before he stopped. Gil was a little confused as to why they didn’t go very far, but he didn’t question it. He was just too tired to even think of any reason to question it. And even if he wanted to, he didn’t think that his mind, which was even more jumbled up than it normally was, would come up with enough words to form an understandable sentence. So Gil just stood there, feeling completely lost, and then feeling upset because he didn’t fully understand why he would feel like that in the first place.

“Stop thinking.” Carlos said as he gently grabbed Gil’s other arm and slowly pulled him down to sit on the ground. Gil would have normally found it funny that, for once in his life, somebody was telling him to stop thinking. He was usually told to stop talking, or start thinking. At that moment though, Gil didn’t find it all that funny, even if he knew that he normally would.

“Gil,” Carlos snapped his fingers in front of his face and Gil focused his attention on the younger boy. “Just focus on me, okay? Nothing else.” Carlos put a hand on Gil’s chest, and then he used his other hand to guide Gil’s hand to his chest. “You feel me breathing?”

Gil tried to answer, but his words got all caught up in his throat, as though he couldn’t figure out how to form a simple sound. So he nodded his head instead.

“Good.” Carlos grinned kindly. “Do you think you can match your breathing to mine? In,” Gil felt Carlos’s chest expand with air. “And out.” Carlos exhaled. “Can you do this with me?” 

Gil wasn’t sure. He had tried to do the slow breathing earlier, and it hadn’t worked. He couldn’t calm down enough to do it right. But...this was different. Carlos was right in front of him, doing exactly what he wanted Gil to do. All he was asking was that Gil copied him, and copying people was a lot easier to do than just listening to them.

So Gil gave it a try, and it was a lot harder than he thought it would be. His head was swimming, and whenever he breathed in through his nose, or tried to let the air out slowly it felt like he didn’t have enough air, like he was suffocating. It wasn’t a nice feeling, and Gill probably would have just given up or panicked if Carlos hadn’t been right there, firmly encouraging him to keep trying. 

It took a few minutes, but Gil was eventually able to get a hang of the slowed breathing thing. It was only once he was breathing normally again did Gil realize just how quick and short his breath had been before. He still felt kinda dizzy, but it wasn’t as bad as before.

“...Thanks.” Gil muttered, and he meant it.

“No problem.” Carlos’ eyes were completely free of judgement. “You have no idea how many times Jay has had to do that for me.”

“Can you tell me what happened in there?” Ben knelt down next to them when he could see that Gil was doing better.

“...I don’t know.” Gil said as he curled his available hand around his stomach. “I’ve been feeling funny all day.”

“Are you sick?” Ben asked, his voice full of concern. “You didn’t eat much this morning, or last night.”

“Wait, you didn’t?” And now Carlos sounded concerned. “Gil, when was the last time you ate something?”

“Uh…” Gil blinked. He couldn’t actually remember. Yesterday morning? The night before that?

“If you have to think about it, it’s been too long.” Ben said sternly. “You need to get some food.”

Gil scowled at the thought. Maybe he was hungry, but the thought of food just made him feel sick to his stomach. Maybe he really was getting sick.

“We’ll get you something easy to eat, I promise.” Carlos said. “If you haven’t eaten in awhile, it’ll probably just make things worse to eat too much so suddenly.”

“...Okay.” Gil said reluctantly. He didn’t really want to, but he knew that they were right. Carlos stood up first, and he pulled Gil to his feet.

“We can go to the kitchens, if you want.” Ben said. “Nobody will be in there.”

Gil smiled weakly. “That sounds really good.” He didn’t want to have to deal with anybody else. Gil loved to be around people, except when he didn’t, and at that moment he really didn’t. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle it. Ben was okay, because he was kind and gentle, even when the people around him weren’t. And Carlos was okay, because Gil didn’t think that he could be threatened by the younger boy if he tried. But anybody else...Gil didn’t know, and he didn’t want to risk it.

It only took them a few minutes to get to the kitchen, and Gil was surprised at just how clean it was. Every kitchen on the Isle of the Lost was filthy, and had no organization whatsoever. If Gil couldn’t see all the food and kitchen utensils around, he would think that Ben had lied about where he had brought them.

“So, any idea what you want?” Ben asked. “Eggs are quick and easy to make, but I think you said that you don’t like them, right?”

Gil shuddered and felt like he was going to throw up just at the thought of willingly putting eggs in his mouth. “Please, no.” He said weakly.

Carlos didn’t wait for Gil to think of what he thought he could stomach. The younger boy went to the fridge and grabbed a bowl. He put it on the counter and then practically dragged Gil to it. “Here. Jello should be easy enough to eat. And we should also get you some toast or something.” Carlos said this as though he knew from experience, which wasn’t actually all that surprising. Gil was fairly certain that there were more kids on the Isle of the Lost who went days without food than those who had food readily available to them.

Gil’s stomach wasn’t hurting as much as it had been before, and he had never been able to refuse food that was handed to him, so he took a bite of the weird red stuff that Carlos called Jello. A moment later Gil couldn’t help but cough the food out, because it hadn’t been anything like he had been expecting.

For one thing, it was sweet. Gil rarely ever ate sweet things, partially because they were were on the Isle, and partially because he had a preference for salty things. Still, it wasn’t a bad flavor, and Gil probably would have been fine with eating it if it weren’t for the texture. The Jello was smooth and slippery, and yet kinda thick at the same time. It wasn’t the worst texture in the world, but it reminded Gil of how egg whites felt in his mouth, and it wasn’t something that he would ever put himself through willingly.

“Is there something wrong?” Ben asked as he watched on in confusion and concern as Gil spat out the Jello and then tried to wipe any lingering taste off of his tongue.

“I-it feels like egg whites.” Gil coughed. “Makes me sick.”

“Egg whites?” Carlos’ eyes widened. “Wait, you mean your brothers were being serious?”

It took Gil a moment to realize what Carlos was talking about, and then he remembered what Jun and Bronze used to do. They always used to find Gil’s punishments funny, and they liked to tease him about it all the time. Especially at school. Everybody at Dragon Hall probably knew everything about what Gil went through back home. That was the one and only reason why Gil was glad that Uma and Harry hadn't gone to the same school as him. Neither of them knew what his home life had been like, and he didn’t have any plans of letting them know.

“My brothers don’t joke about that kind of thing.” Gil said simply. His brothers weren’t really big on jokes at all, though they often thought that they were.

“Am I missing something?” Ben looked lost, and a bit wary. “What did you brothers do?”

“It wasn’t my brothers, it was my dad.” Gil said. He hadn’t really talked about this with anybody else before, but it wasn’t like he was trying to hide it from anybody other than Harry and Uma. “He used to use egg whites to force me to throw up whenever I ate without permission.” Gil said it casually, as though it was the most normal thing in the world, because, for him, it was.

“What?!” Ben looked horrified, and, to Gil’s surprise, actually angry. And here he had thought that Ben didn’t have a temper. “Your dad...he...why would he do that?”

“Because he could.” Gil frowned slightly. He was a little confused by Ben’s reaction. Gil had nearly forgotten that things weren’t the same in Auradon as they were on the Isle. “It’s okay though. It wasn’t that big of a deal.” Gil said this in an attempt to make Ben feel better. If anything, it made the young king feel even worse.

“It is a big deal.” Ben said quietly. “Every day children on that island are being lied to, abused, manipulated, tortured, starved, and I...I’ve done nothing to change that.”

“You have been doing things to change it.” Carlos argued immediately.

“You brought us here.” Gil pointed out. There wasn’t much more of a change that he could ask for.

Ben just shook his head. “It’s not enough. It won’t ever be enough to make up for what has been done.” Ben ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I don’t know how to fix things.”

“What are you talking about? You are fixing things.” Gil tilted his head. “I may not be good at words and reading, but I am good at puzzles,” Both Uma and Harry insisted that he was, so he knew that it was true. “And if you have something that’s broken into lots of little pieces, you can’t just throw all the pieces into a pile and expect them to be okay. You have to put it back together one little piece at a time, and that’s what you’re doing.” Gil didn’t want Ben to feel bad about something that hadn’t even been his fault in the first place.

“Exactly.” Carlos grinned appreciatively at Gil as he handed him a fresh roll. Gil was surprised at just how soft it was. He was used to the really stale stuff. “Now, eat something before you make yourself sick.” Gil wasn’t sure if it was his lack of eating that was making his stomach twist up in knots, because it felt more like his emotions were getting really bad and betraying him, and that was why his stomach was hurting. Was that even possible? Gil didn’t know, but he didn’t want to ask somebody else because if it wasn’t a thing, then they would probably think he was stupid for asking. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

Gil took a reluctant bite into the roll, and then he realized just how hungry he was. Gil did his best to fit as much of the roll as he could in his mouth. Carlos laughed slightly at his enthusiasm, and Ben just looked slightly concerned.

“Slow down a bit.” Ben advised. “There’s plenty of food here. It’s not going anywhere.

“Oh, leave him alone.” Carlos just sounded amused. “Me and Jay did the same thing for the first month or so here.”

Gil struggled to swallow down at least some of the food in his mouth. “I always eat like this.” 

“Well, you don’t have to anymore.” Ben put a hand on his shoulder. “Like I said, there’s plenty of food here. And nobody’s going to try to keep it away from you, okay?”

Gil blinked. That sounded almost too good to be true. But he didn’t think that Ben would lie to him, especially not about this. “Okay.” Gil knew that he would still act the same way about food as before, but it was nice to know that he didn’t have to.

“Good.” Ben smiled relieved. “I mean it. I want you to take as much food as you want.” Now that was a request that Gil was more than happy to follow. “But as soon as you’re ready, I want you to come with me to talk to Fairy Godmother.” 

Gil choked ever so slightly on his food. “W-why?” Hadn’t he seen her enough for one day?

“Gil, if you really do have a hard time with reading, then she should know about it.” Ben said seriously, though not unkindly. “We can get you help.”

Gil didn’t know if there was help for him, and even if there was, he didn’t know if he wanted it. Did he really need help to be able to do something that came so easily to practically everybody else? Why couldn’t he never figure out how to do it by himself? And what could the people in Auradon do that Harry and Uma, the only two people that Gil knew for a fact actually cared about him, couldn’t? What if Gil was just a lost cause, and any of Ben’s attempts to get him ‘help’ only ended in failure and even more people knowing just how much of a failure he was?

Gil’s stomach began to twist up in knots again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, Gil’s just not having a good first day in Auradon. It was really weird to write him like this, all unsure and anxious, but I felt like it worked for this situation. Gil’s still feeling pretty vulnerable and tense after what his brothers had done a few chapters ago, he hasn’t eaten anything in at least a day, and he’s operating on no sleep in an unfamiliar setting. I have no idea who wouldn’t be more emotional in his situation.  
> Anyways, I’m done explaining away any out of characterness that may have been present in this chapter. Next chapter, I’ll be bringing Harry back. We’ve been kinda Gil focused these past few chapters, and Harry needs some love too.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Why is it easier for me to write about Gil being in pain when the chapter is from somebody else's point of view? I don't really get it.

All while he was growing up, Harry had been interested in becoming a pirate captain. He had been raised as a pirate, and even before he had ever sailed a ship he had known everything there was to know about how a ship worked. He had learned how to be a good captain from Harriet, and how to not be a captain by watching his father. Harry had thought that all of that would be enough.

Now though, he would give anything to have the position of first mate back, because it was really difficult and stressful to be the person in charge. Harry could handle having power over others, but, as much as he hated to admit it, he usually needed somebody around to tell him when and how to use said power.

Harry had thought that he had been doing a decent job as Captain in Uma’s absence, but that was on the Isle of the Lost, where the rest of the crew already knew what they had to do and he didn’t need to babysit them or deal with any unexpected problems. Things were completely different in Auradon. He couldn’t just wave his hook or sword around and scare any potential threat away. He had to find a different way to deal with them, which was annoying enough as it was. Throw in the fact that any major problem that Harry had with Auradon stemmed from Gil having a problem in Auradon, and Harry felt completely useless.

Gil was one of two people that Harry would actually call a friend, which just made him feel even worse. Harry knew that Gil was scared of staying in the Beast’s castle, and he didn’t know how to fix it. Harry knew that Gil was stressed about how uneducated he believed he was, and he didn’t know how to fix it. Harry knew that Gil was upset about a lot of things (his brothers, the fact that Uma was still gone, Auradon didn’t seem like as ‘good’ a place as everybody made it out to be), and he didn’t know how to fix it.

Gil was struggling to adapt to life in Auradon. He was hurting, and scared, and probably thought that he wasn’t good enough to even be here, and it killed Harry to know that he didn’t have a clue of what to do about it.

Harry was supposed to be the leader, the captain. What kind of leader was he if he couldn’t even figure out how to keep one of his best mates from running off the deep end? Harry just didn’t know what to do.

Gil deserved better.

Harry didn’t know what to do for his mate. He was willing to give it a try, even if it was beyond his comfort zone. The problem was, he couldn’t even do that. Gil had been given detention, which was completely ridiculous in and of itself, and, however briefly, Harry was unable to be right near him.

That in and of itself made Harry feel even more on edge than he usually was. He had a bad feeling about all of this. That bad feeling only got worse when Jay tried to reassure him by saying that detention in Auradon mostly just consisted of writing up lines or something like that. For normal people, this wasn’t that big of a deal. But Gil was far from being a ‘normal’ person. Harry knew that he had a hard time reading and writing. Especially writing. And even though Gil denied it frequently, Harry knew that he could get extremely sensitive and freaked out easily under the wrong circumstances.

And after everything Gil had been through in just these past two days, Harry thought that this definitely qualified as the ‘wrong’ circumstances. Especially since Gil was still noticeably physically weak from a lack of food, sleep, and almost being killed by his brothers just the day before. And when Gil felt physically unwell, it affected him mentally. This was why Harry cared so much about Gil’s well-being.

Harry may not bother to talk about these things with Gil, because he knew the conversation would go nowhere. Harry was too easily agitated by emotional matters, and Gil was too prone to getting flustered and often had a hard time expressing his thoughts into words when he was upset. Harry had never had the patience to deal with Gil when this happened, and he was sure he would only make things worse by trying.

Harry needed to figure out what to do to help Gil, but he didn’t know what he could possibly do if he couldn’t see just how he was affected in the first place. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even do that because Jay had gotten a message from Carlos that said that Gil had been having some ‘issues’ in detention and would be busy for the next few hours. No matter how much Harry threatened Jay for information, that was all he was told. He didn’t know if Gil had panicked, or if he had attacked somebody again, or if he just didn’t know how to deal with what was being asked of him.

Because neither Harry nor Jay knew how much longer Gil would be, and neither of them was all that eager to hang around the school for an undetermined amount of time, Jay decided that they should go back to the castle to wait. Harry didn’t like the thought of just waiting for Gil, not even having an idea of what was going on with him, but it wasn’t as though he had a choice on the matter. If he went to confront Gil unexpectedly before he was ready, then he might just make everything worse. He needed to wait for Gil to come to him.

He needed to wait.

Harry still didn’t feel entirely comfortable inside Ben’s family’s castle, and he didn’t know if he ever would. He had lived his whole life either on a ship or on the streets. He could very rarely handle staying indoors for longer than a few hours at a time. The only reason he was able to bare through school was because knew exactly when he would be getting out, and if he ever felt like the walls were closing in on him, he could just leave. Harry couldn’t even stand to think about being trapped inside for more than a few moments before the feelings of panic and helplessness would begin to build up in his chest.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, and Harry did what he could to avoid it. If he was given the chance to be inside or outside, he would choose wide open spaces every single time. If he was really given the choice, Harry would rather be on a good ship out on the open sea, but when that wasn’t an option, he at least needed some fresh air.

Fortunately, there was a garden just outside the castle. It was a little too pretty and perfect for Harry’s tastes, but it was better than hanging around the stuffy castle all day Besides, it was interesting to see how many plants with thorns, or harmful insects were in the gardens. It was a lot more than Harry had expected, which actually made him feel a bit relieved. Harry knew there was no such thing as true perfection, and anything or anybody that claimed otherwise just buried any ‘flaws’ under the surface, which made everything feel incredibly fake. Harry never liked this kind of deceit, at the best of times it annoyed him, and at the worst of times it actually made him extremely uncomfortable. It was a bit of a relief to know that the people in Auradon weren’t always so desperate for beauty and goodness that they forced away anything that they didn’t approve of.

Now he just hoped that the Auradonians accepted people as they were the same way they apparently accepted gardens, flaws and all.

Harry didn’t know how long he was out in the gardens. He had a tendency to lose track of time easily. It was something that he had been trying to work on lately, but he couldn’t really get all that far on his own. How was he supposed to keep himself from getting lost in his own thoughts for hours on end when he didn’t even realize it had happened until it was over? In the past Uma had always helped to keep him focused and on task. Gil tried to do the same thing, but he also had the tendency to leave Harry alone when he got really into his own head, because Gil was worried about bothering him.

Harry was torn away from his thoughts at the sound of slow, cautious, but still pretty noisy, footsteps. Someone was nearby. Normally Harry became tense and volatile when he was broken out of his thoughts However, this feeling quickly went away before it could really build up when he realized that he knew those footsteps.

Harry couldn’t normally distinguish one set of footsteps from another, but there were only so many people who could almost stomp around, even though it was clear they were trying to be quiet. Not because they were naturally clumsy, but because they just had a difficult time understanding just what ‘silent’ meant.

“That you, mate?” Harry called out in a loud voice. The rustlings picked up and a moment later Gil came stumbling out of a nearby bush. Harry chuckled and shook his head. Gil had been in such a rush to find him that he had run through a bush without even noticing that there was a path just a few feet away that would have led him to the same place.

“H-Hey, Harry.” Gil smiled, though it looked a little forced. “Jay...Jay told me...He said you would be back here.” Harry frowned slightly at Gil’s words. It wasn’t unusual for Gil to stumble through his words. Sometimes he had a hard time articulating his thoughts, and he would realize mid-way through a sentence that his words didn’t match up with what was on his mind, so he would backtrack. Sometimes this happened for no reason. Other times though this happened because Gil was really upset about something.

Harry was tempted to ask what had happened, or if he was okay, but the questions caught on his throat. He felt like this was something that he should ask about, to be supportive, but he just couldn’t bring himself to. It felt like he really, physically couldn’t. His conflicted feelings felt suffocating, really they did. Harry only had to deal with this for a few moments before Gil made up his mind for him by continuing to talk.

“Uh, Harry?” Gil’s voice was quieter than it normally was, and Harry hated hearing it. Gil wasn’t supposed to be quiet and unsure. “Will you go...I mean, would you be okay if...I’m not supposed to...gah!” Gil let out a short shout of frustration and dug the palms of his hands into his eyes. “It’s not coming out!”

“Gillie!” Harry grabbed Gil’s wrists and gently pulled them away from his face before he could hurt himself. “Gillie, it’s okay.” Harry lead Gil down to sit on the ground, in the hopes that it would somehow get him to calm down a little bit. This wasn’t normally the kind of thing that Harry would do, but this wasn’t a normal situation. Whatever Gil was having a hard time with, it was really, really bad. “Now, using the first words that come to mind, can you tell me what you were trying to say?”

Gil narrowed his eyes in slight concentration. “F-Fairy Godmother doesn’t want me to go to the remi...remedy...to the goodness classes.”

“What?” That had not been what Harry had expected. “Why?”

“She thinks that I should focus on catching up with everybody else on a scholastic level, because she doesn’t want me to fall behind when the new school year starts.” Gil said blankly, which told Harry that he was repeating word for word what the Fairy Godmother had said to him. Gil probably didn’t understand what some of her fancy terms actually meant, but he obviously understood enough to get the gist of what he was being told to do.

“Why would she think that you would need to ‘catch up’?” Harry asked in a low voice. If the Fairy Godmother just assumed that Gil wasn’t as intelligent as everybody else after having him in just a single one of her classes…

“B-Ben made me tell her that I can’t...that I have a hard time with scribbly words.” Gil muttered.

Ah, so she knew that he had difficulty reading. That made her statement a little more forgivable, though not by much. Had she tried to understand the circumstances that would allow Gil to be able to read? It was doubtful. She probably just thought that he didn’t know a single thing and would be starting from scratch, and yet she apparently expected him to learn how to read at the same level as other kids his age in the few months before school started up again? What kind of impossible fantasy world was she living in? 

And what did Gil’s reading struggles have to do with her stupid goodness class? She could make accommodations so that he could do better in the class. But no, her brilliant plan was to kick him out of it all together. Maybe she just wanted to give him more time to work on his reading, but the remedial goodness class was only a little more than an hour long. It wouldn’t be taking that much time out of Gil’s reading practice time. Especially since, as far as Harry could tell, there was reading involved in the remedial goodness class. He could do both at the same time.

The only reason that Harry could think of behind why the Fairy Godmother would tell Gil that she didn’t think that he should be in her class was because she just didn’t want to deal with him.

“H-Hey, Harry?” Gil continued timidly

“Yeah?” Harry responded, even as he was making mental plans of setting the stupid Auradon school on fire while the Fairy Godmother was locked inside.

“Am I...Is there-” Gil trailed off as he tried to find his words. “What’s wrong with me?”

“What?” Harry felt as though his blood froze over. “Where would you...nothing! Nothing is wrong with you?” Harry said firmly. Why would Gil even think such a thing? Where would he even get the idea? If somebody said something to him… “What did the Fairy Godmother tell you?”

“Wha-nothing.” Gil sounded bewildered at the suggestion. “Nobody said anything to me, I was just...thinking.”

This actually made Harry feel even worse. If Gil was thinking that there was something wrong with him, that he was broken, or that his mere existence was a mistake, then something was seriously wrong. Especially if these lies were coming from his own thoughts, without influence from the opinions of other people.

“Gillie, look at me.” Harry said firmly. Gil blinked and looked at him with wide, confused eyes. It was clear that he didn’t understand what the serious tone was for, and it made Harry feel like he was being torn to pieces. Gil wasn’t upset when he had asked what was wrong with him, he was just asking because he was genuinely curious, like he really did think that he wasn’t normal, and he wanted to know why.

“There is nothing wrong with you.” Harry said in a low voice. Maybe his tone was more threatening and forceful than he meant it to be, but Harry had a tendency to try to intimidate when he was feeling hurt or scared, and the fact that Gil was asking him about this absolutely terrified him. “Nothing.”

Gil didn’t look like he necessarily believed him. “But...wouldn’t you say that even if there really was something wrong with me?” So Gil thought that he was lying. Just how long had Gil been thinking such thoughts for it to be so ingrained in his mind that he didn’t trust Harry’s words?

“Yes, I would.” Harry admitted. “The same way that you do for me.”

“What?” Gil tilted his head in slight confusion.

“You keep on insisting I’m not crazy.” Harry reminded him.

“Because you’re not.” Gil said immediately. “That’s not...what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, what if I think I am?” Harry asked.

“You’re not!” Gil raised his voice slightly.

“Exactly.” Harry grinned. “I think I am, you think I’m not. Just like how you think there’s something wrong with you, and I really don’t.”

“But...wait.” Gil frowned in confusion. “Who’s right?” 

Harry shrugged, because he really didn’t know how to answer him. Clearly, they both thought they were right, and he didn’t think that either of them were going to change their minds.

“Look, Gil, even if there is something wrong with you, and I really don’t think there is, what does it matter?” Harry asked, because he didn’t entirely understand. As far as he was aware, Gil wasn’t fond of the term ‘normal’, so why would he worry about if he fit into the ‘normal’ mold that society had somehow decided on?

“I’ve just been thinking, I guess.” Gil muttered as he turned his gaze to the ground. “I don’t know...I don’t think I like it here. Auradon’s really weird.”

“I won’t argue with you on that.” Harry muttered under his breath. “But we’ve only been here one day. Maybe it will get better?” Harry wasn’t so optimistic about that, but he would say anything to cheer his friend up.

Gil shook his head. “I don’t think so.” Just that slightest bit of pessimism from the normally smiling and happy Gil shook Harry down to the core. “Everybody here feels really fake. It’s like they’re all putting on some show, but I don’t know what it is.” Harry understood what he was saying, because it was the same way on the isle. People were afraid of how other people might judge them, so they put on a mask and went through their life performing a facade. That was just the way that things were.

“I’m just so confused.” Gil admitted. “I wasn’t ‘normal’ on the Isle. Everybody said that I belonged in Auradon. They seemed like...I thought that people in Auradon would be more like me.”

Harry felt shivers run down his spine, because he had an idea of where Gil was going with this, and he didn’t like it.

“I thought I would fit in here, but I don’t.” Gil frowned. “Too good for the isle. Too bad for Auradon. I can’t...I don’t fit anywhere.”

Harry grimaced. “Gillie.” 

“What do they...I don’t…” Gil bit his lip and sniffled a little bit, which made Harry feel a million times worse. He hated it when Gil cried, and it looked like they were getting pretty close to just that. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t...I don’t know what they want from me.”

Harry sighed. At least he knew where Gil’s insistence that there was something wrong with him came from. He was trying to be what other people expected him to be, but he couldn’t figure it out. No matter how hard Gil tried, there were going to be some people who said that he just didn’t fit in like they expected him to. Gil probably figured that if everybody else could figure out what these unspoken expectations were, and how to follow them, and he couldn’t, then that meant that something was wrong with him. Harry didn’t fault him for this line of thinking, because it was a very logical way of thinking. It was still heartbreaking though.

“I don’t know what they want from me.” Gil repeated dimly as tears formed in his eyes, though he tried to hide it from Harry. “I don’t...I’m not good enough. I’m never good enough for anybody.”

“That is not true!” Harry growled. Gil didn’t even glance his way. “You’re good enough for Uma. You’re good enough for me. What does it matter what anybody else thinks?” Gil acted as though he hadn’t heard a word he had said.

“I’m not...I just want to belong somewhere.” Gil said blankly. Even though tears were beginning to fall from his eyes, his tone sounded almost emotionless. It scared Harry. “I don’t belong on the isle. I don’t belong in Auradon. “I’m nowhere...nobody.”

“Stop it!” Harry took his hands away from Gil’s and grabbed his arms instead. Harry drew him closer to him and made Gil lean against his chest. Harry just held him. He himself didn’t enjoy physical contact, but Gil did. Not just that, but for some reason Gil was better at understanding things when he was given physical contact. If Gil was still spiraling out of control when Harry was holding his hands, then he needed to give him more.

“Gillie.” Harry sighed and just held Gil close to him. “Don’t talk like that...p-please.” What had the Auradonians done to Gil to make him break down like this? “It doesn’t matter if other people don’t think you fit in. It doesn’t matter if they don’t think you’re good enough. None of that matters.” Gil’s reaction mattered a lot, but Harry really didn’t think that other people’s opinions mattered. Not about this. “If you really don’t feel like you belong here, that’s fine. We can just go somewhere else.”

“...What?” Gil muttered. “Where?” Well, at least he was listening.

“Anywhere.” Harry said. “The world is bigger than just the isle and Auradon.” Harry highly doubted that in all the world there was not a single place where Gil would feel like he could just be himself. And if there really wasn’t, well, they would just have to make their own. If that was necessary, Harry actually had an idea of just where they could go. “Look at the sky.” Gil hesitantly tilted his head and looked up towards the heavens.

The sun had set a while ago, without Harry even realizing it. He felt slightly unnerved that the day had ended without him even noticing, but he was glad at that moment that it was night, because the stars reminded Harry of a place that he knew of where he knew they would belong. 

“Do you see those two bright stars up there?” Harry pointed towards the stars that he was indicating.

“Uh...I guess?” Gil said. “Are they important?”

“Very important.” Harry smiled slightly. “Did you know that there’s an island out beyond those stars?”

Gil was quiet for a moment as thought about it. “You mean...Neverland?”

“Aye, Neverland.” Harry was proud of his friend for remembering such a place that he hadn’t heard a lot about. “Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.”

“Does the place really exist?” Gil asked.

“Of course it really exists.” Harry scoffed. “Harriet told me so.” Harry’s older sister was just old enough to have been born before the villains had all been banished to the isle of the lost. She had actually been to Neverland, though she only vaguely remembered it. “Jonas has been there too.” Harry reminded Gil. And, unlike Harriet, Jonas had actual memories of the place.

“Do you really think we could go there?” Gil asked.

“Of course.” Harry didn’t doubt for a moment that they would find a way to get there. “We’ll find Uma, get the rest of the crew, and claim the island for ourselves.” The pirates who had used to be in Neverland were long since gone, and Harry didn’t doubt that their crew could handle the natives that remained.

“...But what if Uma doesn’t want to?” Gil asked slowly. “She wanted to be in Auradon.”

Harry froze, because he hadn’t considered that. Gil was right though. Uma wouldn’t be content with just having a place in the world that she could call her own. She was obsessed with having whatever Mal wanted, and at the moment Mal wanted to be in Auradon. Harry liked to think that Uma didn’t have her heart set on taking over Auradon, but what if she was?

“We’ll...we’ll figure something out.” Harry said.

“O-oh.” Gil stiffened slightly. “I-it’s okay. I know that we’ll do whatever Uma wants.” Gil’s tone was casual enough that if Harry didn’t physically feel how tense he was, he would think that Gil really was okay with it. The truth was, he wasn’t. Gil just wanted to hide how he really felt about the thought of staying in Auradon from Harry.

“Gil, I mean it.” Harry insisted. “If you don’t feel comfortable here, but Uma wants to stay, we’ll figure it out as a crew.” Harry didn’t know how they would possibly be able to find a compromise if this particular situation ever happened, but they had to. He cared about both Uma and Gil, and as far as Harry was concerned, neither of their desires or feelings was more important than the other...at least, Harry liked to think that he didn’t care more about one’s feelings than the other.

The problem was, Uma was still his captain, even if she wasn’t around at the very moment. Harry had always been willing to do whatever she wanted, but he had never been in a situation where he would have to decide between Uma’s happiness, and Gil’s. Harry liked to think that he would find a compromise to make them both happy, but if that wasn’t possible, what would he do? Who would he choose?

Harry honestly didn’t know anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I thought that this chapter would end up being shorter than the others. I keep on forgetting that I have a tendency to write more about thoughts and emotions. That's why most of my stories are of the hurt/comfort genre. Anyways, I hope you guys liked this chapter. It will be really important in a few chapters time.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a shorter chapter. Not a lot happens in it, but at least it’s something, right?

A lot had changed in Auradon since Ben’s decree that the children from the Isle of the Lost should have the opportunity to live a better life. Many Auradonians were still struggling to adjust to the changes that came with the children. Even people who hadn’t thought that the children would be that much trouble from the very start still had to adjust to one thing or another.

Belle had never truly believed that the children from the Isle of the Lost were evil or inherently malicious. If anything, she had thought that they were misguided. Belle had been cautious about Ben’s decision to bring the children to Auradon. Not because she didn’t trust the children, but because she wasn’t sure if their kingdom would be ready and willing to accept them. She feared that if the Auradonians treated the children as outcasts and villains, then that was exactly what the children would become, simply because they knew no other way.

Belle was pleasantly surprised to see that it hadn’t been the case. The children hadn’t necessarily been welcomed with open arms, but they had adjusted to being in Auradon much quicker than the Auradonians had adjusted to having them around. Belle had been unspeakably proud of Mal and her friends for doing the right thing, even when practically everybody believed that they wouldn’t. And she was proud of Ben for standing by them.

After the first four children from the Isle had proven themselves, Belle found herself more comfortable with Ben bringing more children over. By the time school had been let out for the summer, Belle felt completely comfortable around all of the children from the Isle of the Lost, so she hadn’t hesitated to offer up her home for them to stay.

It was actually rather fun to have so many kids running around the castle. Many of them were younger, as Ben had wanted to focus on children who couldn’t defend themselves and didn’t have anyone to turn to. He wanted to save them before anything truly terrible happened.

There were a number of teenagers that had been brought over though. With so many kids and teenagers staying in one castle, the place felt livelier than it had ever been before. Belle enjoyed the excitement that came with having so many people in one place, but she was a quiet person by nature. She didn’t exactly mind being around people, she certainly didn’t get uncomfortable around them the way that Adam did, but sometimes she needed a break from all the excitement. A chance to get away from all the noise and read a nice book.

Because there were so many people around, Belle didn’t often get such an opportunity. The quietest times of the day was for an hour or so during lunch. The children from the isle had their remedial goodness classes during that time, and Ben usually had some royal duties to attend to. During that time, the castle was empty and quiet, and Belle always took advantage of this to spend some alone time in the library.

One day though, Belle was surprised to see somebody already in the library when she got there.

“Gil, what are you doing here?” Belle did her best to keep her tone as casual as possible. She hadn’t failed to notice how nervous Gil got around her and Adam. The last thing she wanted was for Gil to feel like she was accusing him of doing something wrong, because he most definitely wasn’t. She just hadn’t expected him to be there.

“Oh, hi Belle.” Gil said cheerfully. Belle was relieved that he wasn’t as nervous as he had been those first few days. “Fairy Godmother doesn’t think I should go to her classes anymore, so I stayed here.”

“Well, I know that.” Belle said, feeling just a bit awkward and even slightly upset. Ben had explained Gil’s circumstances to her, so she understood the Fairy Godmother’s reason behind her decision, but she wasn’t so sure that she agreed with it. “I was actually wondering what you’re doing here in the library.” Belle didn’t mean to make assumptions about Gil based off of what she knew about his father, but she hadn’t thought that the library was somewhere that Gil frequented.

“Oh.” Gil blinked and looked around in confusion, as though he wasn’t completely sure himself what he was doing there, and he was hoping to find an answer among the books. “Uh, Ben said there were some puzzles in here?”

“Ah,” Belle smiled and made her way to a nearby cupboard. “Do you like doing puzzles?”

“Yeah.” Gil grinned enthusiastically. He joined Belle at the cupboard and looked at the different puzzles that she kept in there. He grabbed a box that had a 1000 piece puzzle in it. Belle thought that it was a little ambitious for him to begin with a puzzle of this size, but she didn’t say anything. Belle just Led Gil to the table that they kept in the room for just this kind of thing.

“Do they have a lot of puzzles on the isle?” Belle asked curiously, because, after thinking about it for a moment, she realized that she really didn’t know all that much about life on the island.

“Not really.” Gil said as he began to spread out all of the pieces so he could look at them all at the same time. “But one time we put Uma’s shell back together. There were a lot of pieces, and they were all really small. Harry says that it was like a really hard puzzle.”

“And you enjoyed that?” Belle was surprised. “That sounds like it would be frustrating.” If a sea shell broke into many small pieces, they would all be of different sizes, and look relatively the same. It didn’t just sound hard, it sounded nearly impossible.

“The others thought it was.” Gil picked up a piece at random and began to look for another piece to connect it to. “I thought it was fun though.” Gil found a match for the piece that he was looking for. He connected them, and then immediately began to scan the remaining 998 pieces for another one to connect to his two. Belle didn’t know if this was the most efficient way to do a puzzle, but, again, she said nothing. Belle just began to pick out the edge pieces so she could begin working on the border.

“Where is your friend?” Belle asked as she sorted her pieces.

“You mean Harry?” Gil found another piece. “He’s at school, at that goodness classy thing.” He said this with so much confidence that Belle almost felt bad for disagreeing.

“Do you really think he’s there?” Belle asked. She had been under the impression that Harry didn’t enjoy the class and probably only went so that Gil would stop bugging him. If Gil was no longer taking the classes, then Harry had no reason to go himself.

“Of course.” Gil scoffed. “He told me he would be.” Gil’s trust in his friend was strong, and Belle didn’t think that it was deserved.

“And you trust him?” Belle asked in a slow voice.

Gil paused and looked at her seriously. “Harry’s my friend. Why wouldn’t I trust him?” 

Belle paused and considered her words before she continued. “...I just don’t want you to get hurt.” Physically, emotionally, or mentally. Gil was physically strong, yes, but even during the short time that Belle had known him she had seen just how fragile he really was. She didn’t want him to get hurt because he trusted the wrong people.

“Harry wouldn’t hurt me.” Gil laughed slightly.

“He already has.” Belle said in a quiet voice, looking at the scar on Gil’s face. The boy winced and drew back on himself slightly.

“Th-that was an accident.” Gil said in a quiet voice.

“I know it was.” Belle didn’t doubt that for a minute. But that didn’t excuse what had happened. Sometimes, people hurt each other without meaning too. In most instances Belle believed in forgiveness and redemption when such a thing happened, but she knew that sometimes if such accidents continued to happen, then maybe it wasn’t a relationship that was worth fighting for.

“You know,” Belle said as she finished sorting the edge pieces and began to put them together. “You remind me of a boy that I used to know.”

Gil tilted his head slightly in confusion. “...my dad?” He guessed.

“No,” Belle chuckled slightly. “Though you do have his charm.”

“Oh.” Gil nodded before he frowned. “Is that a bad thing?”

“It can be.” Belle said after she thought about it for a moment. “It all depends on how you use it.” Gil looked even more confused by her words, so Belle dropped the matter. “I was talking about somebody else though.” Somebody who had really looked up to Gaston. He had been willing to follow the man to the ends of the Earth, and he had. The only reason that LeFou had ended up on the Isle of the Lost was because of his devotion to Gaston. Belle was positive that, had he based his decisions on something other than his undeserving loyalty, that he wouldn’t be on that wretched island.

“This boy that I used to know, his life was ruined because he trusted the wrong person.” Belle looked at Gil, who was pointedly avoiding her gaze. “I just don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”

Gil didn’t say anything in response, and Belle let the subject go, for the moment. The two of them worked in silence for a few minutes. She did the puzzle in her way, where she looked for patterns in the big picture, and he did it in his, where he tried to find specific pieces to match the ones that he had already connected. Belle hadn’t thought that Gil’s method would get him very far, and she was very surprised to see how quickly he seemed to be getting through the pieces.

“You’re really good at this, you know.” Belle said. “How can you do the puzzle like that?”

Gil’s face scrunched up a bit and he gestured to her finished border. “How can you do it like that? I can’t look at the pieces as a group and just see how they fit. I can only do it one little bit at a time. That’s what makes sense to me.”

Belle wondered if that was just the way that things made sense for him in general, but she didn’t ask about it. She just let comfortable silence fall between the two of them as they worked on the puzzle. The silence didn’t last for very long though. Gil seemed rather relaxed looking for individual puzzle pieces, and after a few minutes he began to hum as he worked, though Belle didn’t think he had even noticed.

She was content to just let him hum to himself, but after listening to him for a few moments Belle realized that she recognized the song that he was humming, and it was one that she hadn’t heard in a very long time.

“How do you know that song?” Belle asked.

“Huh?” Gil looked up at her in confusion. “Oh, uh, maman used to sing it to me when I was little.”

Belle’s eyes widened. Maman? And the song that he was singing…”Gil, parlez-vous français?” The instant that the question was out of her mouth, Belle regretted asking it. She knew that there was a very real possibility that Gil was familiar with her native language, but the possibility that he only knew English was just as real.

“Yeah,” Gil said casually as though it was no big deal.

“Did you parents teach you?” If they did, Belle assumed that it would have been more the mother’s work than Gaston’s.

“No really.” Gil scrunched up his nose slightly. “Maman died when I was little,” The casual tone that Gil had when he said this pained Belle. “Dad didn’t exactly teach us, but he sometimes spoke French when he was drunk, if that counts.” No, Belle didn’t think that counted.

“Where did you learn?” Belle asked, because she was honestly curious. She hadn’t thought that there were very many French folks on the Isle of the Lost.

“Claudine taught me a lot.” Gil said. “She said that she didn’t want her pure language to die off.” Claudine Frollo. Belle was vaguely familiar with the name. She was one of the teenagers that Ben wanted to bring to Auradon for the upcoming school year.

“But I think LeFou taught me the most.” Gil smiled fondly. “He was always willing to teach me stuff. Most people just give up.” 

“Why would somebody give up on teaching you?” Belle was disgusted at the thought. If somebody was going to take it upon themselves to educate somebody else, they shouldn’t just give up on them.

“I’m a slow learner.” Gil shrugged. “I can be told something dozens of times, and still not get it.”

“That is no excuse.” Belle said irritably. She took a deep breath to calm down. “Is that why you never learned how to read?”

“What?” Gil looked confused for a second. “Oh, I learned how to read.” 

Belle was taken aback. Wasn’t the reason why he wasn’t in the Remedial Goodness classes anymore because he couldn’t read, so he couldn’t do the work? “I was told that you couldn’t.”

“Aye, well, nobody bothered t’ask, now, did they?” Gil and Belle both turned to the door of the library where Harry Hook was leaning against the doorframe. Belle didn’t know what to think of that boy.

Harry sauntered into the room and grabbed a random book from the shelf. “Gil can read.” Harry insisted as he made his way to them and took a seat next to Gil. “Not quite how normal people can, but he manages it.” Belle didn’t like how Harry had said that Gil wasn’t a ‘normal’ person. That just didn’t sound like something that friends should say about each other.

“How?” Belle asked, because she was curious. After all, there weren’t exactly many ways to go about reading.

Harry smirked, set the book down on top of their puzzle, and opened to a random page. Belle was then shocked when Harry turned the book around so they were looking at the pages upside down. “Like this.” Harry confidently pointed to the page and nodded at Gil.

“Oh, yeah.” Gil looked sheepish. “I forgot that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Just read the bloody book.” He muttered.

Gil leaned forward and looked at the passage that Harry was pointing at. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared.”

“Tha’s good.” Harry patted Gil on the shoulder and leaned back, looking proud. Harry smugly looked at Belle, who, for a few moments, was speechless.

“You...you can read that easily upside down?” Belle could read upside down as well, though she had to think about it. Gil had done it so naturally.

“Aye, an’ he can do it when the letters are mirrored too.” Harry looked incredibly proud at Gil, who just looked confused.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.” Gil said. “It’s the only way that I can read.”

“Tha’ doesn’t make it any less impressive.” Harry put an arm around Gil’s shoulder, which the blonde looked incredibly pleased about. “I don’t care what the Fairy Godmother says, you are incredible, and don’t you forget it.”

Gil grinned broadly. “Okay, Harry.”

Belle hadn’t known what she had expected from these boys when they had first come to Auradon, but it certainly hadn’t been this. She still didn’t know if she trusted Harry Hook, but she didn’t think that she was too suspicious of him either. Gil’s devotion to Harry still reminded Belle of LeFou, but she was willing to admit that Harry didn’t treat him the way that Gaston had. Gil and Harry’s relationship was something similar, but still uniquely different. Belle still didn’t know if she liked it, but she was willing to take a step back and not interfere with the friendship that they had.

But she would still watch them carefully. Just because Harry was different from Gaston didn’t mean that he was automatically a good person. Belle knew that Harry had already hurt Gil at least once before. Who was to say that the same thing wouldn’t happen again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, Gil can read. Not only can he read, but we know from the third book that he can read something that is mirrored while looking at it upside down, and he can do so with ease. And he’s also good at puzzles. Gil is freaking smart, he just has his own special way of thinking.
> 
> And for anybody who has been wondering where Uma has been this whole time, don’t worry, I’ll be getting to that next chapter, as well as some other stuff...


	12. Chapter 12

Harry had never been bothered by boredom before. He could on the deck of an unmoving ship, staring out towards the sea for hours on end and never stop being content. Even if he didn’t have the privilege of being on a ship, he could lose himself in his thoughts so easily that sometimes he wasn’t sure if he could find himself out again.

Harry didn’t much enjoy losing himself in his own thoughts, it was exhausting, and terrifying, and every single time it left him feeling like he had done or would do something that he would regret later. Still, losing himself like that usually lasted for at least a few hours. That was one reason why Harry hated it so much, but sometimes there could be an appeal to having a way to make a few hours pass in a flash.

Auradon was just...so boring. Everybody expected things from him, which Harry normally couldn’t care less about. It was just so tedious and dull to know that others had expectations for him, even if he had no intentions to do what they wanted. Harry hated being bored.

He never had this problem on the Isle of the Lost. If he ever got bored there, he would go find Uma, would would always make his day. He would find his sisters, who could be amusing when they wanted to be. He would keep the crew on task. Or, if all else failed, he would take to the streets and terrorize a few people.

He couldn’t do any of that in Auradon. It was no fun to terrorize the goody goodies that lived here, because half the time they didn’t even realize what he was doing. Or they would behave self righteous towards him, and both reactions were equally annoying.

Normally Harry would check up on Gil, who was always good for a laugh, and was probably the one genuinely kind hearted person that Harry tolerated. However, ever since they had set foot in Auradon, Harry and Gil had been spending less and less time together. Harry was sure that it wasn’t intentional on either of their parts, it was just the way that things happened.

Harry blamed the mandatory remedial goodness classes...well, mandatory for everybody except for Gil. Harry had to devote an hour or two to those useless classes every day. Harry normally wouldn’t go, except then he would have the Fairy Godmother breathing down his neck about it, and then she would report to Ben, who would then report to Gil, and it was all just pain to deal with.

Harry had been worried about Gil during those first few days. Gil had been having a difficult time adjusting to Auradon, and his feelings of unworthiness had only been getting worse. Harry hadn’t felt comfortable being away from Gil for more than a few minutes, let alone a few hours.

Harry had been surprised when he had learned that there had been no need for him to worry. He just didn’t know if it was a pleasant surprise or not. Harry knew that he should be relieved that Gil wasn’t spending these few hours by himself, and he was, he just didn’t like who he was spending time with.

That Belle woman had taken a liking to Gil, and the blond boy was always more than happy to be around somebody that showed him even the smallest act of kindness. Harry didn’t know what Belle and Gil did when they were in that library, all that either of them would tell them was that they were ‘talking’. Harry could tell when people were lying to him, and neither of them was. They really were just talking. Harry just couldn’t imagine what on earth they could talk about for hours on end.

If it was just that Gil had somebody to talk to while Harry was gone, he would be fine with it. Slightly annoyed, but fine. With every day that passed Gil seemed to be spending more and more time with Belle, not just to pass the time as he waited for Harry, but because he wanted to. Gil didn’t immediately change the amount of time that he spent with Belle, it was a gradual thing, but by the end of a week instead of being in the library for an hour or two, he was in there for three or four.

Which meant that Harry had a few hours to spend by himself.

He would go in and get Gil himself, Harry knew that his mate wouldn’t leave him alone on purpose, except...Gil seemed so content with Belle. He enjoyed doing puzzles with her. He enjoyed speaking to her in French. Gil especially enjoyed hearing about what France was like, as he had never been anywhere that wasn’t Auradon or the Isle of the Lost.

Harry had always seen Gil as a boy that was too cheerful for his own good, but he very rarely got the opportunity to see him truly content. Actually happy.

Harry didn’t want to ruin that, and he knew that he would if he interfered even the tiniest bit. It was all he was good for. Gil had been having such a difficult time in Auradon, and Harry didn’t want to make him feel like he had to stop doing the one thing that he found joy in.

Harry was just annoyed that he had to find a way to amuse himself while Gil was off having fun without him. Harry had never been very fond of amusing himself, but he wasn’t incapable of doing so. Harry had been a pirate on the Island of the Lost. He knew how to keep himself busy by finding items of interest where others didn’t think they existed.

Harry was sure that there was a lot of loot that wouldn’t be missed in the castle, but he wasn’t ready to make himself at home there yet. Besides, the castle as a whole was too clear a target, and Harry wanted a challenge. So Harry restrained himself to just the bedroom that he and Gil shared. There wasn’t anything as obviously expensive in here, it was just a guest bedroom, after all. But it was a guest bedroom in a castle in Auradon. It just wasn’t plausible that there was nothing worth snatching in there.

Harry had been staying in that same bedroom for a little over a week. He knew every visible nook and cranny, so he had to do some digging to find something new. The drawers, the closets, under the beds, behind the dressers, Harry checked everywhere. He might have found something of interest, but when Harry caught sight of a dusty old bottle with a wrinkled up piece of paper inside of it under Gil’s bed, his curiosity was piqued. Leave it to Gil to have something as cliche as a message in a bottle.

Harry considered the possibility that Gil simply had the bottle because he liked the thought of it, he certainly wouldn’t put it past Gil. Something in his gut told him that it wasn’t the case. This wasn’t just some garbage that Gil was holding on to, this meant something. Harry just didn’t know what. Who had given this message to Gil? And why was it so important that he had felt the need to bring it with him from the Isle of the Lost, because there was no way he had gotten it in Auradon.

Harry grabbed the bottle and pulled it out from under the bed. A little voice at the back of his head told him that he shouldn’t be going through Gil’s things, but the little voice wasn’t loud enough for him to actually listen to it. The little voice was rarely loud enough for him to pay attention to it.

Harry knew that he could just struggle to drag the paper out, but it was much easier to just break the bottle. If he was going to go behind Gil’s back, he might as well go all the way. Harry smashed the bottle against the floor at the foot of Gil’s bed. He grabbed the slip of paper from among the glass shards. The paper felt fragile in his hands, like it would fall apart if he held it too tightly, but he managed to open it up.

There was messy writing on the note. The ink was blurry and nearly impossible to read, but that was exactly what made it so easy to identify the handwriting. Harry could tell that the note had been written by somebody who wasn’t practiced at writing, somebody whose writing frequently ran because of contact with water.

Uma.

...Gil had a note from Uma.

Where in the world had Gil gotten a note from Uma? How had he gotten it? When had he gotten it? And how come Harry hadn’t heard a word about it? Gil knew how worried Harry had been about Uma. Why would Gil have kept something like this from him?

Harry scowled as he tried to read the handwriting. It was familiar, definitely Uma’s, but still difficult to read. Difficult, but not impossible. It took a few minutes, but Harry was able to decipher at least some of the words, enough to understand the gist of the message.

It was a message from Uma to Gil, there was no doubt about that. The note mentioned a few notes that she had received from Gil(When had he done that?). There was an apology in the note, though Harry couldn’t see what exactly the apology was for. Harry probably could have figured that part out if he tried hard enough, but his focus was completely on what came next in the note.

Harry was able to make out the words ‘Auradon’, ‘high tide’, reef’, and ‘Atlantica’. Uma had told Harry and Gil about Atlantica, how it was the kingdom of the merpeople. Uma’s mother’s old lair had been somewhere near the underwater kingdom, but not a place that was easily accessible...somewhere like a reef.

Harry’s insides churned in a way that they hadn’t done in weeks. It was probably a leap in logic, but what if this message said where Uma was? Near the reefs of Atlantica, her mother’s old lair. It made sense that she would be there...but how long would she stay? What if she was only there for as long as the tide was in?

What if Uma had already left and they had missed her entirely because he hadn’t even seen the note? 

“Hey, Harry, what’re you looking at?” Gil asked in a cheerful voice that made Harry’s head pound. Sometimes it was refreshing to hear the cheerful tone, other times, it made him want to stab something. Harry wasn’t quite there yet, but he wasn’t far off.

Harry clenched his hands tightly around the bit of paper, and he didn’t know if he was relieved or disappointed that it didn’t rip under the pressure. “Why don’t ye tell me?” He said darkly.

Gil blinked in confusion and made his way across the room to look at the note for himself. He didn’t try to look over Harry’s shoulder. Somehow, Gil had finally gotten it into his head that reading was much easier for him when he looked at the letters upside down.

Gil leaned forward and looked at the note in confusion for a moment. “What’s this?” He crouched down on the ground in front of where Harry sat (had he always been sitting on the ground?), though Gil immediately winced and drew back when he accidentally put his hand the pile of broken glass.

Gil looked at the broken bottle in confusion, and then back at the note. “Oh, is that Uma’s note? I almost forgot about that.”

“Ye fergot ‘bout it?” Harry growled in a low voice and pushed himself to his feet. Gil stayed crouched on the ground, and he looked up at Harry in confusion as though he didn’t understand why he was so upset all of a sudden. Gil’s cluelessness just irritated Harry that much more. 

“Ye got a note from Uma, and ye forgot about it?” Harry paced into the middle of the room. He clenched his fists tightly to his side, wishing now more than ever that he had his hook with him. Although, maybe it was a good thing he didn’t have his hook, lest he do something he regret. 

Gil frowned. “I didn’t try to forget about it.” Gil stood up and took a step towards Harry, though he was smart enough to not go any closer. “I got the note from Auradon right after it, and I just forgot…”

“What note from Auradon?” Harry snarled. To his knowledge, Gil had been given no such formal invitation. Ben and his father had come to The Isle of the Lost, for some reason, and when they returned to Auradon they had taken Harry and Gil with them.

“Oh, Ben sent me an invitation awhile ago.” Gil’s tone was strange, almost regretful. “Though, I don’t think I wanted to tell you that.”

Harry sharply turned and glared at Gil. “You don’t even know what you want?” This was why Harry had never thought that it was a good idea for Gil to do any kind of thinking or difficult decision making. He could barely ever remember what the reasoning behind his decisions were.

“I-I didn’t think…” Gil looked uncertain.

“That’s just the problem, isn’t it?” Harry barked harshly, which made Gil flinch. “Ye never think.”

Gil blinked rapidly. “I...I think.” He said defensively.

“No, ye don’t.” Harry shouted. “If ye thought to use your head every once in awhile, ye would have remembered Uma’s note.” Harry took an angry step towards Gil, who, for once in his life, backed away from him. “We could have found her if ye weren’t such a bloody idiot.” Harry shoved Gil harshly, which caused the blond to stagger slightly and fall to the ground. Gil used his hands to catch his fall, right where Harry had smashed the bottle.

Harry didn’t fail to notice Gil’s wince when his hand was cut by the shards of glass, he just didn’t care. He could sometimes be in a very caring state of mind, but his boredom, along with his anxiety about whether he would still be able to find Uma, and his frustration with Gil’s...just with Gil, didn’t put him in a very concerned state.

“Stay here and try not ta screw anything else up.” Harry growled as he turned away from Gil.

“W-where’re you going?” Gil’s voice cracked in a way that betrayed his uncertainty. He was emotional, upset. Even when Harry was in a stable state of mind, he would only feel the need to calm Gil about half the time. When Harry’s own emotions burned like a fire that he couldn’t control, there was no way that he could deal with Gil’s.

“I’m going after Uma.” Harry said without looking back.

“Let me help.” Gil said desperately. “I want to find Uma too.” Harry didn’t doubt that, not even for a second, but he knew that Gil mostly wanted to join him because he didn’t want to be alone.

Harry knew that Gil was afraid of being alone, almost more than he was afraid of anything else. It was why, even when Harry was annoyed by him, he usually let Gil stay by his side. Especially when Gil was already upset. At that moment though, Harry couldn’t have Gil at his side. Not then. He needed some time. And he needed Uma.

"The last thing I need is yer help." Harry said as he paused briefly in the doorway. "Now stay here." Harry left without another word.

Harry was confident that he would be able to find Uma out on the ocean. He didn’t care how long it took. He didn’t care how far he had to go. He would find Uma. All he needed was a ship.

Fortunately, Harry was fairly certain that a certain king had access to a ship. It was just a matter of persuading him to let Harry borrow it for a time. And Harry could be rather persuasive when he wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I know I said that Uma would be in this chapter, but apparently we're not quite there yet. She won't make an official appearance in the next chapter either, but the chapter after that, I swear, she'll be in it. In fact, that chapter will be from Uma's point of view. I hope that makes up for the delay.


	13. Chapter 13

Adam didn't pretend to think that he was a mild-tempered person. Beast or not, he got mad easily. He had gotten better over the years, but Adam knew that he was still far too temperamental. It was difficult to break such long lasting habits, but Adam tried his best.

One thing that he tried to do was to forbid yelling in his home at all. He had learned all too well that shouting and being intimidating caused much more problems than it solves. That didn't mean that he didn't slip back into old habits sometimes. If Adam came across people in his castle in the middle of an argument that was starting to go too far, usually if he tried to intervene things would just escalate. He had never been very good at calmly talking down rising tempers. Belle was far better suited for that kind of thing. If Adam ever came across a tense situation, he would either get Belle to take care of it, or he would leave it be and let those who were fighting work things out for themselves.

When Adam heard shouting coming from down the hallway, he paused momentarily before he ran to see what the trouble was. There wasn't a lot of shouting, but it was loud, harsh, and only coming from one person. If there was a fight that was going on, it was a one-sided one. Adam didn't normally like to interfere with these fights, but the only people that stayed in the rooms that were down this hallway were children that had come from the Isle of the Lost. Adam had accepted that none of the children were truly evil, but many of them certainly didn't know how to express their anger in a non-violent manner.

If Adam didn't allow shouting in his home, he certainly didn't allow violence. He didn't know for certain that anybody would get hurt, but he thought that it would be best for him to be nearby, just in case.

Before Adam could get to the room where the trouble was, the door was thrown open and an absolutely furious Harry Hook came storming out of the room. Harry didn't take any notice of Adam, he just made his way down the hallway and out of sight.

Adam stood completely still for a few moments before he continued on to the room. He wasn't comfortable with how furious Harry Hook seemed to be. Adam was under the impression that the boy was a little unstable at the best of times, and he didn't want to think about what he could do when he was truly upset. At that moment though, Adam was more concerned about what Harry might have already done.

Harry hadn't bothered to close the door to his bedroom behind him, so Adam was able to look right inside. He froze when he saw Gil sitting on the ground, looking incredibly stunned. Adam supposed he should have known that Gil would have been the one on the wrong side of Harry's anger, as there was nobody else that Harry was around. The thought hadn't even crossed Adam's mind. Gil in general just didn't cross his mind.

Adam didn't know what to think of Gil. Ben seemed to like him, and Belle absolutely adored him, but Adam hadn't interacted with him much since he had come to Auradon. Adam knew that Gil was scared of him, and he wanted to change that, he just didn't know how. The best that he could do was to stay away from the boy so as to not scare him.

If Gil was hurt or upset though, Adam couldn't just ignore that.

"Is everything alright in here?" Adam asked from the doorway. "I heard shouting."

"O-oh, h-hey Bea...uh, Ben's dad." Gil's friendly smile was forced, though Adam didn't know if it was because the boy was scared of him, or upset because of what had happened with Harry.

"You can call me Adam." He hadn't missed how Gil had started to call him Beast. Adam wasn't bothered by it though. He was actually impressed that the boy had switched what he was saying mid-word because he hadn't wanted to offend of upset him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Gil said a little too loudly. Adam seriously doubted that was true. Especially when he saw the broken glass around Gil and the blood on his hands.

"You look hurt." Adam took a step forward. "Are you sure…"

Gil flinched and drew back slightly, which just wasn't safe when he was surrounded by glass. Adam stopped. He was concerned about Gil, but if his attempts to offer help only made the boy anxious, then was it really worth it? Adam didn't even know if Gil needed his help. He didn't seem all that bothered by whatever had happened with Harry, he looked more confused than anything. And while Gil's hands may be bleeding, the wounds were likely just superficial.

Whatever was going on between Harry and Gil, if there was even anything going on at all, the boys should be able to work things out for themselves without help. Harry just needed a few hours to cool off, and things would probably be fine. If they weren't, then Adam would intervene. In the meantime though, he thought that it would be best if he just let things be.

"If...you need anything, you know that Belle will be more than happy to help, right?" Adam stepped back towards the door. He wasn't trying to push Gil's problems to his wife because he didn't want to deal with them. Gil just wasn't comfortable around Adam. If he was going to talk to anybody, it would be Belle.

"I know." Gil relaxed slightly when he saw that Adam was on his way out. Gil was still scared of him, but he wasn't as terrified as he had been before. Adam liked to think that maybe someday Gil would stop being scared of him altogether, but he wasn't holding his breath about it. Fear like this didn't just go away, not completely.

Adam would just be satisfied if Gil could stand to be in the same room as he was without being afraid that he was about to be attacked.

They weren't quite there yet though, so Adam decided to give Gil his space. It should be alright. Gil didn't strike him as the kind of person who would insist on keeping things to himself. If something was wrong, and Gil knew that there was somebody around that he felt comfortable talking to, then Adam really believed that Gil would ask for help, or at least go looking for support.

Then again, Adam barely knew Gil, so he really couldn't say.

Adam left the room and closed the door behind him. He would ask Belle to check up on him in a few hours. In the meantime, Gil would be fine on his own.

Adam made his way to his study. Ben may be the king, but he was still just a child. There was only so much responsibility that one boy could handle. Ben was doing an incredible job as king, but if Adam could do anything to lift that burden, he would.

Adam had been focusing a lot of his attention on the Isle of the Lost. He admired Ben's desire to bring children to Auradon, but it could be years before all of the children could feasibly be brought over. They would continue, little by little, to bring the innocent to Auradon. In the meantime, Adam intended to make life on the Isle itself as bearable as possible, both for the children, and their parents. Because the Isle was meant to be prison, not a torture facility.

The villains would likely remain on the island for the rest of their lives, though Adam might consider giving the lesser villains and minions a second chance after all of the children were safe. For everybody that remained on the island, just because they were imprisoned didn't mean that they had to live off of garbage and leftovers. They certainly weren't going to be living in the lap of luxury, but Adam saw no reason why they shouldn't make things at least a little easier.

Decent clothing and shelter, as well as edible food, wasn't a lot to give up. The people of Auradon could donate such things without it being too much of a sacrifice. But it would likely mean the world to the people who had to struggle just to survive every single day.

Adam worked for a few hours until it was dinner time. He was in the middle of something, but Adam put his work on hold and made his way to the dining room. For years he and Belle had enforced a mandatory dinner rule. Unless it was an emergency, they would put their reading and work on hold, sit down, and eat dinner as a family. Even when they had so many guests staying in their home, the rule was still enforced.

When Adam got to the dining room he wasn't surprised to see Belle waiting for him, as well as a number of children and teenagers from the isle who had already started to eat. What Adam was surprised to see was that Ben was nowhere to be seen. Ben was always the first one there. He had never missed a dinner.

"Where's Ben?" Adam asked his wife. Mal and her friends weren't anywhere to be seen either. And, to Adam's disappointment and slight concern, neither was Gil. None of the kids from the Isle of the Lost skipped a meal, ever.

He, Mal, and the others went out to sea a few hours ago." Belle didn't sound concerned, which calmed any feelings of uneasiness that Adam had been feeling. "That Hook boy said he had an idea where his friend, Uma, was. They went to go look for her." Adam wasn't completely happy with the thought of that junior sea witch coming to Auradon, but if all of the other children deserved a chance, then so did she.

"Did Gil go with them?" Adam asked, even though he had a fairly good idea of what the answer was.

"I don't think so. I haven't seen Gil for awhile." Belle frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know." Adam took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "But I'm going to figure it out." Dinner could wait a few minutes.

Adam gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek before he made his way out of the dining room and back towards Gil's room. If the boy was still there, then something really was wrong, and it couldn't just be ignored anymore.

By the time the thought crossed Adam's mind that he should have asked Belle to join him, he was already in the hallway to the boy's room. It would take time for him to go back for Belle, and Gil had been alone for long enough. Adam didn't want to make that time even more, not unless he knew for certain that it was absolutely necessary, and at that moment he just didn't know anything.

Adam wasn't the kind of person to knock on doors. When he got to the boys' room he just let himself in. Adam was concerned when he saw that Gil was exactly where he had left him, sitting on the ground surrounded by broken glass.

Gil had been looking at the ground, but when he heard the door open his head snapped up. "Harry?" Gil's eyes were were wide, slightly bloodshot, and completely desperate. He had obviously been waiting for his friend to return. Gil seemed to wilt when he saw Adam there. He didn't look scared, which was a first, he just looked extremely disappointed and upset. "Oh, it's you."

"...Are you okay?" Adam asked uselessly. He knew that Gil was far from okay. Anybody who took a look at the boy would be able to tell as much. Adam just didn't know what else to do.

"I'm...I'm…" Gil blinked a number of times in quick succession. He looked incredibly lost. "I don't…" Gil's voice cracked horribly. He seemed to curl slightly in on himself. Gil brought his hands up to his face and pressed the knuckles of his fingers to his eyes. "He's coming back. He...he always comes back. He's...he's…" Gil groaned and increased the pressure from his hands to his face. Adam took notice that Gil's hands were slowly moving to the side. The back of Gil's knuckles started on his eyes, and then the back of his fingertips, and his hands were still moving. Adam wouldn't have taken notice of it if it weren't for the fact that Gil's palms were curling towards his face...his palms that seemed to have small bits of glass in them.

Adam reacted instinctively. He rushed forward and gently but forcibly grabbed Gil's wrists. He pulled the boy's hands away from his face before he seriously hurt himself. Adam was already cursing himself for not noticing that Gil's hands had gotten glass in them, and that glass had probably been there for several hours. Adam wasn't about to let Gil pierce his eyes with the glass in his palms. The boy was hurting enough as it was, he didn't need to accidentally blind himself on top of everything else.

Adam expected Gil to get scared and freak out at the sudden movement and firm grip. Gil stiffened and seemed to freeze for a moment, but he didn't draw back. If anything, Gil seemed to lean towards Adam.

Whatever was upsetting Gil, it was bad. Worse than his fear of Adam.

"What happened between you and Harry?" Adam asked.

"He was mad." Gil said. "I don't know why. I should know why, and I don't." Gil whimpered and clenched his fists. Adam didn't know if it was intentional or not, but Gil was hurting himself, and that had to stop.

"Don't do that." Adam adjusted his grip so that instead of gripping Gil's wrists, he was holding his hands. Adam had to be careful, because he didn't want to push the glass further in. It took some careful maneuvering, but Adam was able to get a hold of Gil's hands, with most of the pressure being on the back of his hands, and very little on on his palms where the glass was. "Listen to me, okay, Gil? I need you to listen to me." Adam waited until Gil nodded his head. He had the boy's attention.

"It's not your fault." Adam said softly. Harry Hook struck him as an angry person, and Adam knew better than anybody that when a person that got mad easily got angry, they took it out on the person closest to them, whether it was their fault or not. Adam had been guilty of this far too many times, so he recognized it. Adam knew that this kind of anger was difficult to control, but that didn't mean that it was okay.

Adam knew that he should say more, he just couldn't think of how else to reassure the boy. The only thing he could say was "It's not your fault."

No matter how many times Adam said it, Gil didn't believe him. "It is my fault." Gil mumbled. "Always my fault. I screw up. I never do...I don't know how…" Gil stiffened so much that it looked almost painful. Adam tightened his hold on Gil and pulled him slightly closer.

"Why do you feel like you screwed up?" Adam asked. "You said that you didn't even know what you did."

"There was a letter." Gil said numbly. "It was from Uma. Harry saw it, and he got really mad. I should have showed it to him earlier, but I forgot. I always forget things. That's why I'm always getting banished."

"Banished?" Adam furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"Harry and Uma kick me out when I mess up. When they don't want me around anymore." Gil said, as though it was a completely normal thing, and it most certainly wasn't. "Harry always comes to get me. He gets really mad, but then he comes back...he always comes back."

Gil shuddered slightly. "So stupid. Shouldn't be getting upset. I know why Harry's not here. He's getting Uma. She's more important." Adam felt his blood run cold at the boy's words. He seemed to sincerely be under the impression that Uma was more important than he was, and that wasn't okay.

Adam felt for this boy. Gil's family had terrified and tried to kill him. The friends that he should feel safe around hurt and neglected him. They ignored his feelings because of some petty annoyances. Things had gotten so bad that Gil had felt desperate enough for a listening ear that he was accepting comfort from the man that he was scared to death of.

What kind of world was it that a boy had been so hurt by his family and friends that he had nobody else to turn to but the one that he saw as an enemy?

Adam wasn't the more comforting person in the world, but he had to try, for Gil. The boy had already been let down by so many people. Adam wasn't about to let himself be just another person that disappointed the boy who just wanted a friend. Adam knew that he wouldn't be able to do a lot for Gil, but he had to do what he could. Even if the only thing that he could think to do was repeat the same simple truth over and over.

"It's not your fault."


	14. Chapter 14

Auradon.

Like any other kid on the Isle of the Lost, Uma had spent her childhood dreaming about going to Auradon someday. She remembered some days, back when she and Mal had still been naive and still been friends, the two of them would spend hours at a time fantasizing about what Auradon would be like.

Those childhood fantasies had died pretty quickly. By the time Uma was ten, she had realized that nobody in Auradon was going to come and save her. By the time she was sixteen, she had started scheming on ways to get herself to Auradon.

And now, she had her opportunity, and it was in a way that she hadn’t ever expected. She hadn’t been saved by a prince charming. And even though she had definitely tried, she hadn’t really been able to use her magic to get into Auradon. She had gotten herself past the barrier, but she hadn’t really gone to Auradon. Ben had offered her the opportunity, but she hadn’t taken it.

A part of Uma wanted to take over Auradon, but was that really what she wanted, or did she just think it was because she knew that it was what her mother wanted? Another part of Uma wanted to be in Auradon so that she could taken everything that Mal cared about, but she wasn’t so sure that she wanted that either. It wouldn’t make Uma happy to be with Ben, or to be some prissy lady of the court who always has to think about what other people thought of her. Uma didn’t want any of that, she just wanted to make Mal miserable.

But what was the point?

The night that she had almost taken everything from Mal, Ben had stopped her. Not because of how fierce and kingly he was, but because of how kind and generous he was. From the time that she had met him, all she had done was capture him, threaten his life, and put him under the influence of a love spell. And yet, he still offered to let her come to Auradon.

She just hadn’t understood it. She thought about accepting his offer. She could make a new life in Auradon, but how was she supposed to do that when she didn’t even know what she wanted? She needed time to figure out what it was that she wanted from her life.

So she had left. She just swam around the ocean and wandered around until she stumbled across an old cave off the reef, near the boundaries of Atlantica. She had never been there before, but she recognized it as her mother’s old cave. Uma had no intention of staying there, but it was a good opportunity to just have the space and privacy to think

Uma had no idea how long she had been there for. It was hard to recognize the passage of time when she was in the underwater cave. She swam to the surface every once and awhile, whenever the cave started to feel cramped. During one of these visits to the surface she saw a goblin boat off in the distance, which confused her. The goblins were only supposed to travel from Auradon to the Isle of the Lost, and then back to Auradon again. They had absolutely no reason to be out this far.

Curious, Uma dove back under the surface and swam closer to the boat. She could watch what they were up to, without being seen. Uma watched in confusion as the boat stayed where it was in the water. It wasn’t moving at all. What were those goblins doing up there? Uma was just about to surface again to see what they were up to when she saw them drop something in the water before going on their way again.

Uma waited a few minutes so she could be sure that the goblins were gone before she swam up. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a glass bottle floating on the surface of the water. Uma’s first assumption was that the goblins had just been lazy and needed a quick place to toss their trash, but they wouldn’t dare to do so when they were this close to Atlantica. Not if they wanted their boat to stay upright while they were out at sea.

A closer look at the bottle revealed that there was some paper inside. A note in a bottle? Seriously? Who did that anymore? 

Uma grabbed the bottle, opened it up, and took the note from inside. For wasn’t too surprised to see that the note was addressed to her. That must be why the goblins had dropped it her, because they knew that it was near where her mother’s old lair was, and nobody had any better guesses on where she was.

She was surprised though when she saw that she recognized the handwriting. She had made it a point to learn everything that she could about her crew, and that included what their handwriting looked like. And she wasn’t about to forget that one of her crewmates, Jonas, just so happened to have some of the best handwriting on the Isle of the Lost.

So the note was written by Jonas, but it definitely wasn’t from him. Uma could tell as much after looking at the words used. Only one person that she knew talked like this. And, lo and behold, there was Gil’s name at the bottom of the note.

Gillie...of course he would write a note to her. And of course he would send the note in a bottle of all things. The note didn’t say anything really important, or anything that Uma hadn’t already figured out on her own. It just said that he missed her (of course he did. Gil missed either her or Harry if he went even just a few hours without seeing them), and that Harry had been made captain while she was gone, and he hoped that she was fine with it.

And, actually, she was. As long as Harry understood that it wasn’t a permanent deal, she was actually happy that he was captaining their crew. Somebody had to keep those kids in line.

It had been nice to get that note from Gil, and all of the other notes after it. Every few days the goblins would drop a new bottle into the ocean, and each one held a note from Gil inside. Many of the notes just repeated the same thing as the ones before it had, probably because Gil had forgotten what he had already told her, but Uma didn’t care. 

One day, Uma waited in the regular drop off spot for the goblins to arrive. She normally waited underwater until after they had left, but for some reason that day she had decided to wait for them. Maybe she could get some information about Gil and the rest of the crew from these goblins.

A few minutes later than usual, Uma saw the boat approaching. She swam up to greet them. None of the goblins seemed all that surprised to see her waiting for them. They had probably suspected that she had been around here the whole time, or else why would they continue to drop off the bottles in this exact place?

The goblins personally handed her another bottle, but their little smirks told her that they knew something that she didn’t. When one of the goblins muttered an implication that she would be seeing Gil sooner than she thought. Feeling suspicious, and irritated with the little goblins that always had the tendency to get ridiculously smug when they thought they had information that others might want, Uma demanded that they give her a straight answer as to what was going on.

The goblins exchanged sneaky glances, but fortunately for them, right when Uma was beginning to consider toppling their boat, they decided to share with them. They grabbed a satchel opened it up to show her a number of fancy looking letters. 

“What are those?” Uma asked.

“Wow, you’ve been out at sea for too long.” One of the goblins had said. “These are invitation to Auradon. King Ben has been bringing more people from the Isle of the Lost.”

Uma looked at the Goblin in surprise. “What?” Ben...Ben was keeping his promise? She hadn’t expected that. But what did that have to do with Gil, unless... “Is one of those for Gil?” The goblins didn’t even have to answer. They all looked extremely pleased with themselves, and Uma knew that they had always been fond of Gil. They wouldn’t be this excited about delivering these invitations to the Isle of the lost unless one was for him. “Gil’s coming here?”

“Like we said, you’ll see him soon.” One of the goblin’s chuckled. “I think he’ll be excited to know that you’re alive.”

Right, Uma had almost forgotten that nobody in either Auradon or the Isle of the Lost knew what had happened to her. Harry and Gil had to be worried out of their minds.

Uma didn’t know when exactly Gil would be coming to Auradon, but she did know that it was only fair that she let him know that she was at least alive. The simplest solution she could think of was to do what Gil had been doing this whole time, send a note.

Uma asked for a spare paper and writing tool, which she knew the goblins had on them at all times. She may have gotten the paper a little wet, and the handwriting was certainly nowhere near as nice as Jonas’ was. It was fairly legible though, so she figured it would be fine. Because Uma didn’t want to go to Auradon until she knew that at least some of her crew was there, she included in the note information on where she could be found. She knew that Gil would come and get her as soon as he could.

After Uma had gotten that information from the goblins, they only dropped off one more note in a bottle before they stopped coming altogether. Uma assumed that it was because Gil had arrived in Auradon, and he didn’t feel the need to send letters to her because he was planning on coming to get her. 

Uma still didn’t have a solid way to recognize how much time had passed, but it began to feel like far too long. If she were to take a guess, Uma would say that it had been a few weeks, and she didn’t understand it. Uma began to feel concerned. What was keeping Gil away? Surely he had to be away from the Isle of the Lost at this point?

Not knowing what to do about her impatience, Uma started to spend more time around the reef that surrounded her mother’s old lair. The reef made it impossible to get anywhere near the cavern by boat unless it was high tide. At that time, it wasn’t high tide, but Uma was still able to swim around the rough coral with ease.

One day, as Uma swam near the reef she caught sight of a boat in the distance. Even from this far she could see that it was larger, faster, and just fancier than the boats that the goblins had taken, and it was quickly approaching.

Uma dove underwater and waited to see what the boat was doing there. The closer the boat came, the more it slowed down until it was moving at a near crawl. It didn’t move too close, probably because of the reef, but it still came a little closer than she was familiar with. 

When the boat was close enough to Uma that it was practically right on top of her, she could hear somebody shouting from just above. The shouting was panicked, and fierce. It took her a few moments to realize that just a single word was being shouted repeatedly, and a few more moments to recognize it as her own name.

Somebody was out there looking for her. The first thought that crossed Uma’s mind was that it was Gil, finally, except he wouldn’t be so desperate when calling out to her. It just wasn’t like him. It was much more Harry’s style, but there was no way that he could be in Auradon. Ben may have recognized the goodness in Gil, but he couldn’t have seen the same thing in Harry...could he have?

Whoever it was, they were here for her, and Uma didn’t want to disappoint. She swam up to the surface and looked up at the boat. She instantly recognized her favorite dark-haired pirate standing on the deck, searching the waters. His eyes widened when he saw her.

“Uma!” Harry’s tone made it sound like he had been lost and alone for far too long. He was desperate, and unstable, and it almost made Uma feel bad for being away from him for so long. She kept on forgetting how much Harry seemed to rely on her.

Before Uma could even think to say anything to Harry, he climbed over the railing and jumped into the ocean. Honestly, she probably should have seen that coming. Uma was just glad that Harry was one of the few kids on the isle who knew how to swim, because she was fairly certain that he would have jumped into the ocean even if he couldn’t. 

Uma heard a few other voices from on the boat calling out to Harry in concern or annoyance. She recognized Ben’s voice, as well as Mal’s, but she didn’t bother trying to identify anybody else, because she had other matters to pay attention to.

“Harry!” Uma swam to where Harry was. As soon as she was in his reach, he grabbed onto her and held on so tightly that it was as though he believed his life depended on it. Uma found it extremely difficult to try to stay afloat with Harry clinging to her so tightly, but somehow she was able to manage it long enough for the others on the boat to throw them a line.

It took some awkward movements and slight force for Uma to get Harry to let go of her long enough to grab onto the line and climb up onto the ship. She managed it though, and a few moments later Harry climbed onto the ship after her. Uma had thought that Harry would have stopped being so clingy to her after they got on the ship, but that wasn’t the case. If anything, Harry got even worse.

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Gil.” Uma muttered irritably. 

“I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t left.” Harry growled and looked fiercely into her eyes. His grip became uncomfortably firm. “Never do that again.”

“I’m not making any promises.” Uma said. She tried to be firm and annoyed, but her words didn’t quite come off that way. The truth was, whether she wanted to admit it or not, Uma had missed Harry far too much to truly be annoyed with how relieved he was to see her. In her own way, Uma felt the same way about seeing him again.

Uma finally took her gaze away from Harry long enough to see who else was there on the boat. There was Ben, of course, as well as Mal and her little gang of friends. Uma was annoyed to see them, but she said nothing. She was so tired of hating Mal just for existing. There were so many better things to do with her time and energy. She just had to find what those things were. And now, maybe she would finally find herself in such a situation where she could do just that.

“Uma,” Ben, who was smiling that annoyingly kind, kingly smile, approached her. “It’s good to see you again.” Uma was thrown off on just how genuine Ben sounded, like he really thought it was good to see her, even though he didn’t have any reason to think that.

When Ben joined them Harry finally let go of Uma so quickly it was as though he had been burned. Harry wasn’t normally a sentimental person, that was much more Gil’s department. Uma guessed that Harry didn’t want others to see his moment of ‘weakness’, though she didn’t really understand why only now did Harry act as though he didn’t want to be noticed. Had he forgotten that the others were on the boat? As unlikely as it seemed, it was certainly possible. Harry had always been fairly absent minded, only taking notice of the things around him that he believed mattered. This had always been even worse when Harry was having a bad day or was in one of his moods.

“Wish I could say the same, Benny.” Uma said irritably. She was finally on her way to Auradon, and she had no idea how she felt about it. “I’ll be happy when I see the rest of my crew.”

Ben’s smile fell ever so slightly. “I promise, I’ll bring the rest of them around when I can. But right now, there’s just Harry and Gil.” It was better than nothing. And Ben had been working to keep his promises so far, so Uma didn’t really have any reason to doubt him...for now.

“Where is Gil?” Uma asked, because she didn’t see him on the ship. She felt Harry stiffen next to her as he let out a low growl. Either Harry wasn’t happy that Gil wasn’t there, or he wasn’t happy with Gil. Uma didn’t know which option she preferred.

“He’s back at the castle.” Ben said. “We’ll be there in another hour or two.” Castle. Ugh, of course Ben, entitled little king that he was, lived in a castle. How boring. Honestly, how much space did a handful of people need?

They turned the boat around and headed back towards where Uma guessed the mainland was. She quickly found that she certainly enjoyed being in the ocean itself or on her pirate ship over being on this loud, motorized, fancy boat. Still, at least the ocean breeze felt nice.

“What’s it like in Auradon?” Uma asked Harry as they went.

Harry rolled his eyes and groaned. “Incredibly boring and full of self-righteous idiots.”

“So, just as we expected.” Uma smirked. “How’s Gil adjusting?” Gil had spent his whole life being told that he wasn’t bad enough to be on the Isle of the Lost. It would do good for him to be in Auradon, but not if everybody judged him just because of where he was born

Harry stiffened again. This time, Uma was sure that it was because he was unhappy with Gil. This wasn’t anything new, Harry constantly got irritated with Gil, just as Uma did. They both knew that Gil couldn’t help the way that he was, and he was often just trying to help them, but that didn’t mean that they always had the patience to deal with him.

“Alright, what happened this time?” Uma asked.

Harry scowled and glared out towards the sea. “He had a note that said exactly where you were, and he just forgot about it.” Harry had always been fiercely possessive and protective over Uma. It had probably been driving him insane to not know where she was, so of course he would be irritated upon learning that Gil had had information about Uma’s whereabouts for some time.

Uma understood why Harry was angry, she was just also annoyed about it. Gil was extremely sensitive about people getting mad at him. Even when Uma was irritated with Gil, she always tried her hardest to not take it out on him. If she was truly annoyed with him, she would send him away before she did something that she would regret later. Harry had no such restraint. If he was mad at anybody, Gil included, he wasn’t afraid to show how he felt.

“Don’t be so mad at him.” Uma said. Gil was always unbearably pouty when either Uma or Harry were mad at him. “You know he didn’t mean anything. He’s just Gil.”

Harry scowled. “I know.” Uma knew that now that Harry knew that she was alright, he would forgive Gil sooner rather than later. He would probably be over it by the time they got to Auradon. In the meantime, Uma knew that it would be best to just let him sulk it out.

It was nearly two hours later just as the sun was starting to set, did they pull into the port just near Ben’s castle. They weren’t far from the castle, they could certainly see it clearly enough from the port, but it was still far enough away that none of them wanted to walk there. Fortunately, there was a limo there waiting for them. Considering there wasn’t a driver in sight, Uma figured that Ben and the others had used the limo to get them to the port in the first place. How fancy.

Uma got into the car and sat in a seat as far away from Mal as she could get. Ben let himself into the driver’s seat. Uma should have guessed that he knew how to drive, especially a car like this, but she was still surprised by it. Harry was the last one to get into the car, and he seemed reluctant to do so. Uma didn’t blame him, she knew that Harry liked open skies and seas. Closed walls made him feel claustrophobic.

Uma didn’t say anything as Harry sat as close to her as he could get. If being at her side was the only way that he could handle the short car drive without completely losing himself, then she would allow it.

Fortunately for the both of them, the ride only lasted a few minutes. When they arrived at the castle Ben mentioned something about going to see his mother. He dragged Mal with him, which Uma was glad for. She had ignored the purple haired princess for long enough that day, she really didn’t want to push things.

While Ben and Mal went one direction, Uma told Harry to just take her to Gil. He didn’t look all that happy about it, but he did as she said.

“He’s probably in our room.” Harry said. “If he’s not there, he’ll be in the library.”

Uma raised her eyebrows. “The library?” Since when did Gil decide to spend his time at a library?

“He’s been spending a lot of time with Belle.” Harry growled, clearly unhappy about that fact. He had always been jealous about other people being around those that he was fond of.

Harry lead the way to the room that he and Gil shared. Uma couldn’t help but scowl at everything that she saw in the hallways that they passed. There were far too many expensive statues, vases, and paintings to her liking. None of them served any purpose, they were just there to make the owners of the castle look fancy and special.

When they got to the room Harry opened the door without hesitation, but froze in his tracks when he saw who was inside. Uma was also surprised at what she saw. Gil was there, sitting on the ground surrounded by broken glass. Sitting right next to him was a man that Uma hadn’t truly met before, but she immediately recognized. 

The question was, what was the Beast doing anywhere near Gil?

“You.” Harry growled threateningly. “What’re you doing here?” The man that had been the Beast, Andy, or Adam, or whatever his name was, turned towards them. His eyes flashed dangerously when he saw Harry, and Uma could see signs of the beast that the man had once been.

“I’m doing what you should have been doing in the first place.” Adam (Uma was sure that was his name) said lowly. “Now, get out.”

Harry scowled. “It’s my room. And unless you don’t want me to slit your throat in your sleep, I suggest that you step away from my friend.” Uma knew that it wasn’t a meaningless threat. Harry wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or even kill somebody that he thought was a threat to those that he cared about.

Adam slowly got to his feet. His glare darkened, which Uma hadn’t even thought was possible. “Don’t you dare.” Adam warned. He took a step towards them, though Uma didn’t fail to notice how the man was careful to keep Gil behind him in an almost protective manner. “You can’t just shout at Gil, make him feel like he doesn’t matter as much as Uma does, and then leave him alone for hours and then come back and claim that you’re his friend.”

“What are you talking about?” Uma asked. At the sound of her voice, Gil, who hadn’t looked up at all from the moment they had entered the room, looked up suddenly towards her.

“Uma?” Gil sounded as desperate to see her as Harry had been. Once again, Uma felt bad for ever leaving her boys on their own. Her guilt was shoved to the side when she took a good look at Gil’s face. There was a nasty looking scar going all the way down one side of his face, and it looked a few weeks old. Uma’s blood seemed to turn to ice at the sight.

“Gil,” Uma said breathlessly before she rushed forward to see him. Just like Harry had, Gil clung tightly to her, and Uma would have been more than happy to let him. First though, she wanted to make sure that he was okay. Uma gently forced Gil to look at her, and she was alarmed to see tears in his eyes. Gil was sensitive, but he rarely ever cried.

Uma gently brushed Gil’s hair away from his face. He was hurting. Auradon was supposed to be good for him, but he seemed much more broken here than he had ever been on the Isle of the Lost. Then again, maybe it wasn’t fair to blame Auradon. After all, based on what she had heard that day, and the scar on his face, Uma had an idea of just who was responsible for doing this to Gil.

“Harry.” Uma sharply turned back to look towards her first mate. Harry reluctantly dragged his eyes away from Adam to look towards her. “What did you do?”

Harry looked from Uma to Gil, and a brief look of something akin to guilt came to his eyes. “That...it was an accident.”

“This wasn’t an accident!” Adam growled at the same moment that Uma snapped, “Don’t make excuses!”

If it weren’t for the fact that Gil was holding desperately to her, Uma would have gotten to her feet. Even from her position on the ground, Uma could still have the air of a person who should be listened to and obeyed. She looked harshly at Harry. “Get out.” She repeated exactly what Adam had said just a short while ago. “Until further notice, you’re not to talk to Gil at all, understand?”

“Wha-Uma.” Harry looked taken aback at her command.

“Uma.” Gil whimpered slightly. She understood that neither of them wanted to do what she said. Uma and Harry had always been close to each other, and their bond had only gotten stronger in her absence. But neither of them were in a very good state of mind. From what Uma could see, Harry was out of control, and Gil was even more sensitive than he usually was. Uma knew her boys well enough to know that if they were around each other then they would just make things worse for the other.

So, at least for now, she needed them to take a break from each other. 

Harry stared at Uma in disbelief, but she didn’t waver. She was being completely serious. After a few moments Harry seemed to finally understand this. Harry growled as he turned and left the room, slamming the door loudly behind him. Once he was in the hallway, Harry let out a loud shout of raw frustration and emotion.

The noise made Gil flinch. “Not his fault.” He muttered. Uma turned back to Gil and frowned slightly.

“Don’t encourage him.” Uma said sternly. Harry needed to learn how to take responsibility for his actions. He needed to learn how to control his anger. “I promise, this won’t be forever.” Uma didn’t think she would be able to convince Gil and Harry to avoid each other for the rest of their lives if she wanted to.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook.” Adam said from the side. Uma looked up to see him glaring at her. “Gil told me about his ‘banishments’.”

Uma didn’t pretend that she was the perfect friend for Gil. She made mistakes. Uma knew that Gil wasn’t fond of his banishments, and sometimes he would come back from them extremely emotional and upset because he had thought that they weren’t going to let him back. These banishments were the best solutions that Uma could think of.

The way that Gil was now though, Uma knew that doing anything like that would be a horrible and cruel idea. They would figure something else out, something that would work for all of them. Uma felt like her crew, her friends, had fallen apart in her absence, and as Captain, it was her job to put them back together.

Uma didn’t know where to begin, but she would think of something...she had to.


	15. Chapter 15

Gil didn’t want to avoid Harry. It was actually one of the last things that he wanted to do. Gil had barely left Harry’s side for more than a few hours a time when Uma had been gone, and it just felt weird to all of a sudden be forbidden from seeing Harry. If Gil had his way, he wouldn’t be doing this at all, but Uma’s orders were Uma’s orders. She was the captain, and she had to be obeyed.

It had taken Gil a few days to adjust to not being around Harry. The biggest reason why was because Harry had been so mad before, and Gil couldn’t help but feel like Harry was still mad and didn’t want to be around him. Gil had also been worried that Uma was also mad at him for not coming to get her sooner, and that her order to not see Harry was just the Auradon version of banishment.

Uma had told him that it wasn’t the case. She told him dozens of times that she wasn’t mad at him, and neither was Harry. That she thought that Harry and Gil just needed some time apart from each other, and that was why she had given the order. Ben’s dad, who had told Gil to call him Adam, had also reassured him about these things, multiple times. Gil hadn’t believed either of them at first, but then he remembered that one was his captain, and the other had been the ruler of all of Auradon, and what were the chances that these two leaders would both be wrong about the same thing and Gil was the one who was right?

After he had gotten it into his head that he wasn’t in trouble, Gil had relaxed about the whole thing. He still missed Harry, of course, but Uma had promised him that this would only be temporary, and Gil had no reason to not believe her. Besides, Gil had been able to handle going years without seeing much of both Uma and Harry when they were younger (When they started going to a different school than him, they fell out of touch for a bit). He just needed something else to do to keep himself from completely losing it and thinking he was in trouble again.

Gil would still spend a few hours in the library with Belle every day. She was slowly teaching him how to read right side up. It took some getting used to, and always left Gil with a headache afterwards, but he was making progress. Whenever Gil needed a break, he and Belle would work on a puzzle together. Gil liked it when they did this, not just because he thought that puzzles were fun and relaxing, but also because Belle always spoke in French to him as they worked. Gil loved the sound of the foreign language, and he knew that Belle loved the opportunity to speak it.

As Gil began to learn more about reading and French, he decided that he should brush up on some old skills that he had been ignoring since he had come to Auradon, or even before then. Two such skills required the use of weapons, a sword, and a bow, so Gil had to ask permission first, which had worked out a lot better than he thought it would. Because Gil hadn’t known who he should ask, he had asked both Ben and his father, just in case. 

Not only did they both say that it was okay, but Ben had decided that he wanted to learn how to use these weapons. Ben wasn’t much of a fighter, but as king he felt that it was his responsibility to be able to defend himself and his people should it ever become necessary. Adam had agreed to let Gil teach Ben how to use both a sword and a bow, but only if he was there to supervise their practices.

A week before, Gil would have been terrified at the very thought. Now though, he wasn’t scared of Adam anymore. Sometimes when the man got angry and shouted Gil couldn’t help but flinch in slight fear, but in general he enjoyed Adam’s company. The man was far from being the monster that Gil’s father had sworn that he was. Adam was actually a really nice guy who had some issues and a bit of a temper...kinda like Harry.

Ben understood the basics of how to use a sword. Apparently there was a school sport in Auradon that was basically sword fighting, except the swords weren’t sharp, or even that blunt, and there was a lot of jumping and tumbling around. It sounded really silly to Gil, but considering Ben at least knew how to hold a sword and what his stance should be, the sport probably did its job okay.

Gil gave Ben some advice on how to actually do some damage with his sword. The two sparred for a bit, and after a few minutes Gil began to handle his sword more easily, though he still wasn’t as smooth about it as he had been on the Isle of the Lost It may not have been too long, but muscles can get lazy if they aren’t used, even if it is just for a week or two. Not to mention that Bronze had shot him just a few weeks ago, and though his shoulder didn’t hurt anymore, it still had a ways to go until it was fully healed.

Gil enjoyed using a sword, though that was mostly because it made him feel more like a pirate. When it came to actual combat, if Gil could avoid it, he would rather just not fight face to face with somebody. It made the fight seem personal, more real. He could defend himself and the crew if he felt like they were in danger, but if he had the choice, he would rather do so from a distance with a bow and arrow.

Gil’s father had taught him and his brothers how to use the hunting weapon when they were younger. Jun and Bronze had never been able to grasp the use of the bow, and they preferred to just use guns. Gil had really taken to using a bow, and it was probably the one thing about him that he could say with confidence his dad was actually proud of him for. 

Gil had always enjoyed using a bow and arrow, and for a time it was the only weapon that he really knew how to use. When he joined Uma’s crew and began to stay on the pirate ship with the others, Gil hadn’t thought to take his bow with him. It was probably still back in his old room, along with his quiver of home-made arrows.

Because Gil hadn’t wanted to risk a run in with his father, who had been furious that he had found a new place to call home, Gil had just learned how to work with a sword instead. Now though, in Auradon, Gil had access to both a sword and a bow. The weapons were of different quality than what they had on the Isle of the Lost, and Gil was sure it would take him some getting used to, but at least he had the chance to practice.

Gil did his best to show Ben how to use a bow the right way. Gil had never taught anybody how to shoot an arrow, and it was a lot more fun than he had thought it would be. It made it a little harder to work on his own shooting skills though, as he was busy helping Ben to get it right. So when Ben had to leave for the day to do whatever kings needed to do, Gil took advantage of it and put in some personal practice, though Adam still supervised, which Gil didn’t mind as much as he thought he would.

Then again, why wouldn’t he like having somebody around who was impressed by what he did, even when he didn’t do very well at all.

“Not bad.” Adam whistled lowly as Gil’s arrow hit the edge of the small target.

“Not good either.” Gil frowned. When it came to archery, there was no such thing as close enough.

Adam chuckled slightly. “Considering you haven’t used a bow in at least a few months, I’d say you’re doing just fine. You’re certainly a better shot than your father.”

“What?” Gil looked at Adam in shock. Nobody was a better shot than his dad. “My dad’s the greatest hunter in the world.” It was almost blasphemy to even suggest otherwise.

“If he’s such a great hunter, then I’d be dead.” Adam pointed out. “He certainly had the opportunity, so he must have lacked the skill.”

That...was actually a very hard point to argue. Gil had heard dozens of times about how his father had confronted Adam back when he was a beast. From what Gil had heard, Adam hadn’t tried to fight back for the first part of their confrontation. Larger targets, such as a massive beast, were incredibly easy to hit, especially if they weren’t trying to attack back or run away. It should have been all too easy to fire a lethal shot.

Not wanting to continue to think about whether he was better a shot than his father, Gil nocked another arrow and aimed for the next target. Gil took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If he was on an actual hunt or involved in a real battle he would need to focus more on firing quickly before his window of opportunity closed. His target wasn’t going to go anywhere though, so Gil had all the time in the world to make sure that this arrow hit where it was supposed to.

Gil’s patience paid off. When he fired the arrow it soared smoothly through the air before it embedded itself in the middle of the target. The arrow was at a bit more of an angle than Gil would have liked, but he believed that this was one of the rare instances in archery where close enough really was good enough.

Satisfied, Gil smiled slightly to himself and lowered his bow. He would have to practice more to get back to how good he had been before, but he knew that he couldn’t overdo things too quickly. His shoulder was starting to hurt really badly, and Gil needed to stop before he went too far and really hurt himself.

Besides that, the lower right arm between his wrist and his elbow was really starting to smart. The arm guards that the auradonians had didn’t fit right, which meant that they didn’t protect his skin from the snapping of the bow string the way that they should. If Gil was going to continue doing this, he would have to make his own arm guard like he had back on the Isle of the Lost. He was sure the Auradonians would have some leather to spare for him to use. If they didn’t, he’d figure something else out.

But that could wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, the sun was beginning to go down, and Gil was started to get a little concerned about that night.

“Hey, where is Ben, anyways?” Gil asked casually as he unstrung his bow. He didn’t want to damage the weapon by keeping it strung when it wasn’t in use.

Adam shook his head as he went to gather the arrows that Gil had fired. “He’s just doing kingly business. You wouldn’t be interested in it.”

Gil frowned slightly. A lot of times, people just assumed that he wouldn’t be interested in something just because they didn’t think he was smart enough to understand it. “How do you know?” Gil kept his tone curious instead of defensive, as he really didn’t know why Adam would say this.

“Because a little bit ago, I was the one out on kingly business, and I was never interested in it.” Adam pulled the last of Gil’s arrows out of the target and made his way back to the boy so that they could return the arrows back to their quiver. “Trust me, being a king is far less glamorous than people like to think it is.”

Gil had never really thought about what exactly a king did, and he didn’t think he had an interest in knowing. Kings had to be in charge all the time, and maybe that intrigued some people, like Uma, but Gil was most definitely a follower, not a leader. He was content to just be a pirate.

“When will he be back?” Gil asked, because that was really what he had meant to ask in the first place.

“Not until tomorrow.” Adam said. He frowned slightly when he saw Gil wince. “Is there a problem with that.

“N-no! I just...I…” Gil stopped trying to think of an excuse when he saw Adam giving him the look. The look that was half pity, and half annoyance. Gil had been getting that look a lot lately, mostly from Uma and Adam. It was basically their silent way of telling him that they knew that he was lying, that he wasn’t okay, and unless he wanted them on his back for the next couple of hours he had better tell them what was going on.

Gil really hated that look. Especially because the more he got it, the more he gave in to it.

Gil sighed. “I just...don’t like sleeping when I’m the only one in the room.” Gil didn’t need anybody to necessarily watch him as he slept, that would just be creepy, but just having somebody else there...it was reassuring. Since Gil wasn’t allowed to see Harry, at least for a little bit, they couldn’t exactly share a room. Uma had taken Gil’s place as Harry’s roommate (It was the one and only exception to the ‘boys and girls don’t share rooms’ rule that the castle had), and Gil had been bunking with Ben since then.

Do you need somebody to be with you?” Adam asked. Gil scrunched up his nose slightly.

“No, I’m fine.” Despite what Uma and Adam seemed to think, he didn’t need to be babysat all the time. Gil could take care of himself...even if he didn’t necessarily like to be on his own. It wasn’t anything that he couldn’t handle. It certainly wasn’t anything that he hadn’t handled in the past. It would just take him some time to get used to.

“If you’re sure…” Adam didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t push the matter. “If you change your mind and would like some company, you know-”

“I know that you and Belle are always available.” Gil finished with a nod. “Yeah.” He’d only been reminded of that fact a few dozen times since he had come to Auradon. Ben’s parents were trying really hard, harder than Gil was used to. It was different, but nice. “Is it okay if I stay in the gardens for a little bit?” 

“Of course.” Adam took the bow and quiver of arrows from Gil to put them back in the armory. “We’ve told you, you don’t need to ask permission. The garden is available to anybody at any time.”

Gil sighed in relief. He wasn’t ready to go back inside yet. And the gardens were so bright and colorful, and the flowers smelled nice. It was like the complete opposite of the Isle of the Lost. It was Gil’s favorite place in all of Auradon. He liked the place best when he could be there with Harry, but it was still pretty great when he was on his own.

As Adam went back into the castle, Gil made his way from the training grounds to the garden. He took his time as he went. He wasn’t in any hurry. As Gil’s only goal was to relax and pass some time, he could spend as much time out there as he wanted.

When Gil got to the garden, he wandered around a little bit, probably walked himself in circles more times than he could care to say, but he eventually found his way to the middle of the garden where there was a pavilion and some benches. As much as Gil liked the garden, he didn’t necessarily want to wander around aimlessly and admire the beauty. Gil just liked the atmosphere of the place. Why should he have to exhaust himself to admire the beauty that he could just as easily see from the pavilion?

Gil took his harmonica out of his inner vest pocket. He hadn’t played it in awhile. It was weird just how many things Gil had stopped doing when he had come to Auradon. Well, no better time than the present to get back into his habits.

Gil put his mouth against the small instrument and blew clearly to play a single, long, held out note. It wasn’t the prettiest sound in the world, but it didn’t sound as bad as some of his first attempts had been. Gil adjusted his mouth position so he would play a slightly higher note, and then changed again to play a note that lay just between his first two. Once Gil was happy with the pitchen, he roughly began to play an old sea shanty that Harry had taught him.

Gil wasn’t very good at playing the harmonica. Most of the notes that he played were slightly off, and none of his rhythms were right. But at least his song sounded at least something like it was supposed to. Gil continued to practice the song on the harmonica. He didn’t know if he was actually playing any better, but he definitely felt more confident about what he was doing, and he took that as a good sign.

Gil continued to practice for quite some time. Eventually though, long after the sun had set, Gil knew that he should call it a night and go back inside. It was getting late, and he couldn’t stay in the garden forever. Gil wasn’t quite ready for bed, he planned on putting that off for as long as he could, but other people might be trying to sleep, and he didn’t want to risk bothering them with his harmonica playing. He knew that it wasn’t likely that he would be heard while he was all the way out in the garden, but he thought that it would be better to be safe than sorry.

Gil pocketed his harmonica and began to make his way back to the castle. The garden was a lot harder to navigate after dark than it had been before. Just because Gil could see the castle (even at night it was kind of hard to miss), it was hard to figure out how to get there through all of the bushes, hedges, and thorns. Gil eventually made it, though he had to cheat a couple of times by just plowing through his obstacles instead of trying to find his way around them.

Maybe somebody else would have figured out how to get through the garden the right way, but Gil wasn’t somebody else, he was just himself. He was tired of trying to figure out how to do things the way that other people wanted him to. It was already hard enough for him to just figure out how to do things his own way.

In the castle Gil was shocked and just how few people he saw around. Had everybody else already gone to sleep? How long had he been out in the garden for? Well, at least his plan to put off going to his room for a few hours had worked. Now he just had to figure out what to do with himself for the rest of the night...he really wasn’t looking forward to that.

Gil instinctively made his way to the hallway with all of the guest bedrooms. It was where he was used to sleeping, it was where his shared room with Harry had been. Gil had been so busy trying to think about anything except for the fact that he needed to be alone that night that he forgot that he wasn’t sleeping in the same bedroom anymore. He was supposed to be sleeping in Ben’s room, at least for a little bit, but the young king’s room wasn’t down this hallway. It was all the way on the other side of the castle...oops.

Gil groaned in annoyance and was about to turn around to make his way there when he paused in confusion. There was a bedroom door open. That was really weird. Only kids from the Isle of the Lost stayed down this hallway. All of them would be far too paranoid to even think about leaving their door open, especially at night.

Curious, Gil poked his head inside the room, just to see if it was even occupied at all. Maybe nobody currently stayed in this room. Gil thought it might be the case, but quickly saw that it wasn’t the case. Gil knew that this wasn’t an unoccupied room, because it had used to be his room. But...wasn’t Harry supposed to still be in here?

A quiet groan from one of the beds made Gil freeze, because, yes, Harry was indeed still in there, and by the sounds of it he was probably asleep. Gil wondered for a moment why on earth Harry would have left the door wide open while he slept. Harry was much too paranoid for that. Gil then remembered that the door was only open because it had to be. It was one of the conditions that had been set up if Uma and Harry were to share a room. 

Normally, neither Harry nor Uma would let the people of Auradon set up the rules, but as Harry needed somebody around to ground him, and Uma didn’t want to let Harry out of her sights, they hadn’t had any choice but to agree to the silly conditions.

Gil took a step back. He wasn’t supposed to be there. This was Harry’s room, and Uma had told him to stay away from Harry. He should leave...he really needed to leave. Before Gil could properly walk away from the room he heard another sound from Harry’s bed that sounded much more like a whimper than a groan. Gil paused in his tracks.

Harry was having a nightmare. Gil knew he was, because this kind of thing had happened before. Harry rarely had an undisturbed sleep, he frequently was plagued with nightmares. Gil had seen this happen before, but he didn’t know what to do about it. Should he wake Harry up, or let him sleep? On the one hand, Harry needed as much sleep as he could get. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be nice to just leave him to deal with the nightmares when he could easily just chase them away.

Before Gil could decide what he should do Harry groaned again and slowly rolled over so he was facing the door. The light from the hallway shone right onto Harry’s face, causing him to scrunch his eyes and try to cover them with his arms. Gil didn’t think that somebody could do that in their sleep.

“...Harry?” Gil tried to whisper, though his voice was probably a lot louder than he meant for it to be. Harry slowly dragged his arms away from his face and squinted in Gil’s direction.

“Gillie?” Harry sounded half asleep, which made sense, as he had only just woken up.

“H-hey, Harry.” Gil stepped back into the room and closed the door behind him. He didn’t want Harry to be uncomfortable because of the bright light, but he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. “Did you have a nightmare.”

“...C’mere.” Harry muttered tiredly. Gil bit his lip and cautiously made his way towards Harry’s room. He wasn’t supposed to be in here, but…he really didn’t want to leave. And besides, Harry didn’t want him to leave either.

When Gil got within reach of Harry’s bed he paused, unsure how close he was supposed to go. Harry reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him closer. Gil stumbled and felt his feet give out beneath him. Gil all but collapsed on top of Harry, and he was just about to pull back and apologize when he felt his friend wrap his arms around him and hold him tight. Harry was...hugging him. Gil couldn’t remember the last time Harry had allowed Gil to hug him, let alone initiated the hug himself.

“Harry, what’re you-” Gil began to say, but Harry interrupted him.

“M’sorry.” Harry tightened his grip on Gil and buried his head in his neck. “M’so sorry.”

“...Why?” Gil asked, because he really didn’t know. 

Harry pulled away slightly so that they could see each other face to face. Harry’s eyes looked really blank and lifeless, which meant that he was either lost in his inner madness, or more asleep than awake. “Everything.” Harry muttered as he lifted a hand and gently traced over the scar on Gil’s face. “I hurt you...so badly.”

Gil frowned and leaned slightly into Harry’s touch. “Lots of people have hurt me.” If Gil hated everybody who had ever hurt him, he wouldn’t be able to have any friends. It was much easier to forgive than it was to be alone all the time because he couldn’t trust anybody. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Harry said, sounding more awake than he had before. “Never okay.”

Gil sighed and thought for a moment. He thought about saying something to Harry, but...it was so hard to admit it. “The scar wasn’t the worst that you’ve hurt me.” Gil said quietly. “It hurt, a lot, but it wasn’t anything personal. You hurt everybody. I don’t blame you for that...but…”

Gil felt his breath catch in his throat and he stiffened. “But what you said before you went to get Uma, it...it hurt.” Gil tucked his head to the side to keep Harry from seeing how wet his eyes were getting. “It hurt so bad.” Gil didn’t understand it. Whenever Jun or Bronze insulted him, their words just rolled off his back, but when they used him as a punching bag, it hurt his heart more than anything, because he didn’t understand why his own brothers would enjoy hurting him so much. On the other hand, Gil was just fine with Harry physically hurting him, but if he said just the smallest insult to him, it felt like his world was falling apart.

“I know.” Harry said so quietly that it was almost inaudible. “I know.”

The two of them fell into silence at that point. Gil didn’t know what to say, and Harry was probably too tired to continue. Before too long Gil could feel Harry relax beneath him, and he knew that he had to be asleep. Gil knew that he should be happy that Harry felt safe enough around him to fall asleep so soon after having a nightmare, but he was far too tired to feel relieved. Not tired in the sense that he wanted to go to sleep, but tired of everything. Tired of just life in general. Why did everything have to be so hard?

Gil knelt next to Harry’s bed for a few minutes before he gently pulled himself away from his friend’s unconscious grip. He should probably leave. After all, he wasn’t even supposed to be in here. 

When Gil was halfway to the door another voice cut through the darkness and stopped him in his tracks. “I was wondering when the two of you would break.”

Gil’s eyes widened. He slowly turned towards the other bed in the room, the one that used to be his, and even through it was dark his eyes had adjusted enough for him to be able to see his captain sitting up in the bed, watching him. “Uma, how long have you been awake.” Gil fidgeted with his hands nervously. Was she going to yell at him for disobeying her?

“The whole time.” Uma certainly didn’t sound like she was mad. Gil allowed himself to relax, but only a little bit. Uma sighed and got up from her bed. She approached Gil and wrapped her arms around him just like Harry had just a few minutes ago. Gil wasn’t sure why he was getting so many hugs today, but he wasn’t going to question it. He appreciated it too much to say anything that would make it stop. 

“I’m not mad at you.” Uma said. She’d been saying that a lot lately, though that was probably just because Gil had been afraid that she was mad at him.

“But you said-” Gil started.

“I know what I said.” Uma interrupted him. “But I also knew that at some point the two of you would have enough. Honestly, I would be worried if you two didn’t try to go against these orders.” Gil didn’t understand. Why would she give them an order if she just wanted them to go against her anyways?

You should get some sleep.” Uma said. “We’ll all talk about this in the morning.”

Gil nodded before he realized exactly what Uma’s words implied. “When you say ‘all’-”

“I mean you, me, and Harry.” Uma confirmed. “From what I heard tonight, the two of you have learned your lessons.”

“What lesson was that supposed to be?” Gil asked, because he didn’t remember learning anything, and he didn’t want to disappoint Uma tomorrow with his obliviousness. He hadn’t even known that there was a lesson that he was supposed to learn at all. What if he had done all of this wrong?

“Harry needed to learn that what he says and does can really hurt people,” Uma said. She tightened her embrace. “And you needed to learn that it’s not your fault when somebody hurts you.”

“How do you know we learned those lessons?” Gil asked, because he still wasn’t sure that he had learned anything at all.

“Harry apologized.” Uma said simply. “And you admitted that he had hurt you.”

“...Oh.” Gil frowned slightly. Was that all that she had wanted? It seemed far too simple, but Gil knew that just because he didn’t understand it didn’t mean that Uma didn’t know what she was talking about. She was Uma, she knew what she was doing. 

Uma sighed in slight irritation. She could probably tell that he didn’t understand and she was annoyed with him. Uma ended their embrace and Gil was about to worry that he had done something really wrong. That she was mad at him and wanted to kick him out of the room. Before he could even begin to worry that this was the case, he felt Uma begin to pull him towards her bed.

“Like I said, we’ll talk more in the morning.” Uma climbed into her bed and pulled Gil in after her. “Now, go to sleep.”

“Uh…” Gil’s mind couldn’t find any words for him to say. If boys and girls weren’t even supposed to share a room, he really didn’t think they were allowed to share a bed. But he was tired, and Ben wasn’t back yet, and Gil really didn’t want to sleep by himself.

“Don’t worry about it.” Uma said, as though she could read his thoughts. “Nobody’s going to get mad at you for sleeping.” Gil was sure that a lot of people would actually get mad at him for sleeping, but he didn’t bring that up to Uma. There was no point in getting in an argument with her when she was just going to end up winning anyways.

Uma always won their arguments.

“M’kay.” Gil muttered as he closed his eyes, suddenly feeling absolutely exhausted. “Night, Uma.”

He felt her draw him close. “Goodnight, Gillie.” With those words the two of them fell silent, and a few minutes later they both fell into a dreamless sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

Uma was a compassionate captain, but also a very strict one. She treated her crew like family, but if one of them messed up, she swiftly delivered harsh but fair discipline and punishment. If  
one of the crew did something wrong but didn’t entirely understand what was so bad about it, Uma wouldn’t just punish them, but help them to learn and understand just what had been so bad about it.

Gil was definitely one of the main recipients of these lessons, but Harry had definitely had to bare through his fair share as well. None of them had been nearly as harsh, or important, as Uma’s lesson about how he needed to take responsibility for his actions.

The days that Harry was forbidden from even seeing Gil had been difficult, to say the very least. It was similar, in a way, to how it had been when Uma had left, but also distinctly different. With Uma gone, Harry had felt lost, unstable. Everything had felt unreal and confusing...at least, more so, than it usually was.

When he wasn’t allowed to be around Gil, Harry hadn’t felt like he had lost his mind and stability, but he had definitely lost something. Harry remembered multiple times when he had jokingly told Gil that he was the only source of sunshine on the Isle of the Lost. Gil was always so optimistic and cheerful, and it was near impossible to not become happy just by being around him.

Harry hadn’t realized just how much he had relied on Gil’s light until it had been taken away from him.

Harry was grateful that Uma hadn’t started ignoring him on top of banning him from Gil’s company. He didn’t know if he would have been able to handle being away from the only two people in the world that he truly cared about. Maybe if he was in a better state of mind, he would have been able to bare through it, but he really wasn’t.

Uma must have known that, as she had rarely left Harry’s side during the days that he was away from Gil. She was angry with him, she had made that much clear, but she hadn’t left him on his own. Uma was a better person than Harry was, in that way. If he was furious with somebody, he would either kill them, maim them, or ignore them. Uma didn’t pretend that everything was okay, but she stayed by his side.

The days all seemed to meld together during this this. Harry couldn’t even begin to guess how many days his punishment had lasted for. He knew that it couldn’t have been all that long, but every second of it had felt like torture, so Harry was very relieved when Uma finally decided that they had learned their lessons.

Harry wasn’t entirely sure what lesson Gil was supposed to have learned, as he had been the only one at fault and they all knew it. But Uma was the captain, and it wasn’t Harry’s place to question her.

As happy as Harry was when Uma told him he could be around Gil again, he hadn’t been stupid enough to think that things would go back to normal right away. She had to have known it to, because the same day that she finally allowed Harry and Gil to talk to each other, she also convinced Ben to take them out to sea on one of his family’s boats.

Harry knew that Gil probably wouldn’t see any connection between these things, but one was there. Harry and Uma had both been born to be out at sea, it was where they felt the most comfortable. If things between the three of them was going to go back to being okay again, it would have to begin in a place where Harry could feel relaxed and Uma could feel in control.

Gil would probably be equally as content wherever they held the conversation, but Harry hadn’t failed to notice just how much Gil enjoyed the outdoors. The nature. The sun. Gil loved all of it. And besides that, if they were on a boat with just the three of them and Ben, there wouldn’t be anybody around to interrupt them. Harry knew that he and Uma would just be able to scare off, or at the very least, ignore anybody who tried to butt in where they didn’t belong, but Gil wasn’t like that. He’s too kind to ask anybody friendly to leave, and if the unwanted guest wasn’t so friendly, he would either feel judged and self conscious, or try to pick a fight with them.

No, it would be much better if they were just on their own.

Harry had been slightly nervous about going out on the boat with their friends. He had been worried that Uma would force them to sit down and talk about their feelings, which was close to the last thing that he wanted to do. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t what they did.

Uma said that they didn’t need to have a heart to heart, because Harry and Gil had had one the night before. Harry couldn’t completely remember the conversation, but he did have the feeling that it had happened. He remembered having a nightmare, though he had no idea what it had been about. All he remembered was that Gil had been there for him when he’d been half asleep, and when he had gone back to sleep, no more nightmares had plagued him like they normally did.

Gil had saved him from his own mind, and he didn’t even know it.

For the few hour of two when they were on the boat, Ben showed them how to work a boat that used a motor instead of a sail. Harry wasn’t sure how he felt about the motors, but they were much more efficient than sail boats, and much more accessible in Auradon. Harry prefered the usual pirate ships, but he knew that if he was going to be able to go out to sea in Auradon, he would have to do it their way.

Gil and Uma struggled with learning how to work the boat. Uma, the beautiful, powerful goddess of the sea that she was, believed that the ocean was the strongest natural force in the universe. That natural means should be used to travel on the ocean, and a motorized engine was about as far from natural means as things could get. Gil probably didn’t feel a difference between the different kinds of boats, but motors and engines were just too complicated for Gil to understand. He tried, goodness knows he tried, but he just couldn’t retain anything that Ben told them.

Harry had expected to feel animosity, or at the very least indifference, towards the motors, just as Uma did. To his surprise, he actually found the motors to be somewhat interesting. There was just something that Harry found fascinating about how humans kept on coming up with new ways to overcome the natural order of things. He still liked the control he had on the more traditional ships, but motors really weren’t half bad.

Uma let Harry learn about this unfamiliar technology for quite some time, but eventually she did end up getting bored. She pushed Harry aside and told him that she wanted to have a few words with the young king Ben. She told him to keep Gil out of their hair while they talked, but Harry knew what she was actually doing. She was giving him the chance to have some time with Gil without feeling like somebody was listening in over his shoulder (even though he knew that Uma would be within earshot at all times, but at least it wouldn’t feel like it). She was testing him, and it was a test that Harry was determined to pass. Not just because he wanted to please his captain, but because he wanted things between him and Gil to be back to the way they were before.

Harry didn’t really know what to talk to Gil about, so when the blond had asked about how he had been during the time that they had been apart, Harry went ahead and told him. Harry didn’t have anything particularly interesting to share, as Auradon was an incredibly dull place, but he was more than happy to give Gil an update on how he’d been doing in the required Remedial Goodness class.

Harry still despised the class with a passion. He very much wanted to find the one who thought that the lessons should be as patronizing as was humanly possible and hook them good for it. As annoying as the class was, Harry had started to actually put effort in the work they were given. He did this partially because he knew it was what Gil wanted him to, partially because Uma wanted them to fly under the radar for a bit, and misbehaving in this class would just cause a lot of unwanted attention. And partially because Harry just enjoyed seeing the Fairy Godmother’s shocked expression when he actually got an answer right.

Just because Harry didn’t practice good behavior didn’t mean that he couldn’t recognize it when he saw it. One of his best mates was Gil, who was one of the best people that he knew. A person would have to be daft to spend any time with Gil when he was acting like his kind-hearted self and still not have an idea what true goodness looked like.

Just as Harry had expected, Gil was ridiculously happy to hear how the Remedial Goodness class was going. Harry thought that it was a real shame that Fairy Godmother refused to get off her high horse and allow Gil to take the class again. Harry knew that Gil would end up surprising everybody, especially himself, with just how naturally good he was.

Despite what these Auradonians seemed to think, Gil was a good person, and he deserved to know it.

Harry quickly grew bored of talking about the disgustingly goody-goody class and he asked Gil what he had been up to during this time. It quickly became apparent which of them had been better off. While Harry had spent his time moping and taking notes about what to do with a cursed dagger found in the woods, Gil had been brushing up on his archery and sword fighting.

Harry, who hadn’t even touched a sword since they had come to Auradon, was itching for a duel. He was always ready for a good sword fight, whether the goal was to tear his enemy to shreds, or just as an adrenalin filled activity to do with a mate or two. Harry always felt so alive when he held a sword in his hands, and he wanted that feeling again.

When Ben, who could hear their conversation just as well as Uma could, heard Harry’s desire, he commented that they kept fencing equipment on the ship. Uma was cautious, which Harry had expected. She had only just allowed him to have a simple conversation with Gil. It would be a bit much to expect her to be okay with him being armed with a sharp weapon. When Ben told her that the fencing swords weren’t sharp at all, and the most damage they could do was some minor bruising, Uma gave in.

Ben got the gear out for them. He tried to convince them to wear the proper protective equipment, but they refused. Gil found the mask uncomfortable, and Harry wanted their duel to feel as genuine as was possible. Finally, after a lot of growling and some minor threats on Harry’s part, Ben reluctantly left them alone to do things their own way, though he swore that he would be watching them both carefully, just in case.

While Harry and Ben had debated about the equipment, Gil had taken one of the fencing swords in his hands and he began to practice parrying with it. Gil used to do this back on the Isle of the Lost, just pick up a sword and swing it around. Gil always took this practice extremely seriously, which Harry had never understood. What could be so serious about waving a sword at nothing? It looked like he was trying to fight the air.

When Harry picked up one of the fencing swords for himself, he realized that there was probably a method to Gil’s apparent madness. The sword felt light and flimsy in Harry’s hands, weak. He knew that the goal was to not do any damage, but this was ridiculous. Gil was probably right to get a feel for his weapon.

Harry knew it would probably be wise if he did the same thing, especially since it had been so long since he had handled a sword of any kind. Harry had never been the kind of person to do things the smart way though. He believed that the best way to actually get a feel for his weapon was to use it in a ‘real’ scenario.

And nothing made a fight more real than when he caught his opponent unawares. Taking care to hold back, because even though Ben had said these weapons weren’t made to penetrate anything, Harry was sure if anybody could accidentally stab somebody with the fake sword, it would be him, Harry took his sword and poked Gil in the back of the neck with it.

“Ow.” Gil whined as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Harry like he had betrayed him. “What was that for?” Harry could tell by Gil’s voice that he wasn’t actually hurt, just confused.

“You need to learn how to watch your back, mate.” Harry held his sword in an offensive stance. “You’re an easy target.”

“Keeping an eye out for danger is hard.” Gil said. His stance was relaxed, and his sword wasn’t even raised, but Harry knew better than to let his guard down. As horrible as Gil was at defending himself, he often didn’t have to. As far as Gil was concerned, the best defense was a good offense.

Without warning, Gil suddenly raised his weapon and slashed at Harry in one fluid movement. Harry saw the attack coming, as Gil was known for his strength, not his speed or steal, so he easily was able to dodge the attack. A simple dodge was normally enough to avoid an attack and throw Gil off his balance.

Gil didn’t stumble though. Instead, mid-attack, he sidestepped and changed the angle of his strike, making Harry the one who was caught off guard. The blond must have been practicing more than Harry had expected. Either that, or he had already learned how to take advantage of the lighter weapons. Either way, Harry had taken a hit to his side. It hadn’t hurt, but Gil seemed to be much too proud of his successful attack.

Gil had better hold on too that sense of accomplishment while he could, because Harry didn’t plan on slipping up again.

“Not bad, Gillie.” Harry raised an eyebrow. “I nearly felt that.” Harry hoped that Gil noticed his teasing tone and know he didn’t mean anything by that. Harry was just trying to rile Gil up, not make him feel like he wasn’t strong enough to do any damage.

Gil laughed and tightened his grip on his sword. “Guess I’ll have to try harder next time.” Gil moved in for another hit. Harry knew that dodging wouldn’t be as effective as it once had been, so he decided to take the more direct approach to defend himself. Harry positioned his sword to block Gil’s attack.

If they had been using their normal weapons, or even anything that had more of a surface area and some weight, the attack just would have been blocked and they would have continued as normal. The flimsy fencing swords bent if too much pressure was put behind a simple tap, so when their swords met, they just bent and slid off each other, causing Harry and Gil to just stumble into each other.

“Wow,” Gil said in a voice that seemed to be filled with an almost awe like disappointment. “That really didn’t work.”

Harry growled in frustration and tossed aside the sorry excuse for a weapon. “How did you lot hold your own in a real sword fight when these sticks are your idea of a weapon?”

Ben barely refrained from laughing at them. “The swords we use for R.O.A.R. aren’t all that different from real swords. It’s easy to switch from one to another.”

Harry threw his fake sword on the ground in frustration. “If that’s the case, why are we using these twigs?”

“I like them.” Gil put his fencing sword over both his shoulders and rested hands over it. Harry thought it was nothing short of a miracle that the sword didn’t bend under the pressure.

“Tell you what, mate, next time we spar you can use your little stick, and I’ll use a real weapon.” Harry suggested. “We’ll see how much you like it after that.”

“He’ll probably still beat you.” Uma joined them and picked up Harry’s fencing sword. “You’ve gotten rusty, Harry.”

“If you think you can do any better, be my guest.” Harry bowed in a mocking manner and gestured to Gil, who looked eager at the idea of going up against Uma.

“Watch and learn, Hook.” Uma tossed her hair back and immediately lunged towards Gil. The blond dove to the side and took his weapon off his shoulders. In doing so, Gil found himself holding the wrong end of the fencing sword. Without a proper hilt or handle, Gil didn’t have a firm grip on his sword, but he used that to his advantage. Gil swung the sword towards Uma, and it went flying right out of his hands, just like he had intended. Uma flinched when the hilt hit her upper arm. 

While Uma was distracted, Gil laughed and went across the deck, putting Harry between him and Uma. Harry laughed. He loved it when Gil decided to play dirty.

“Oh, so that’s how you want to do it?” Uma feinted to the right of Harry, and went left when Gil tried to dodge away in a predictable manner. Uma ran behind Gil, dropped her weapon, and jumped onto his back. Gil tried to use his size and strength to pull her off, but when he reached back, Uma grabbed his arms and held them behind his head. Gil struggled, but she had a tight grip on him.

“Harry, help!” Gil cried out.

Harry didn’t normally side against Uma, she was his Captain, after all. But she had said that she wanted him to be more supportive of Gil. “Hang on, mate.” Harry made a grab for the sword that Uma had dropped and went after her.

“Mutiny?” Uma moved her legs until her feet were against Gil’s back. She jumped off of Gil, pushing him staggering to the ground. Uma ducked under Harry and made a dash for the sword that Gil had thrown at her. Things went on like this for quite some time, Harry and Gil against Uma. She was tripping the two of them up left and right, but Harry knew that if this were a real fight with real swords, he and Gil would have had the advantage, even with just a single sword between the two of them.

They had no choice but to stop when, quite some time after the sun had set, the sky had gotten too dark to properly see each other. All of them had pretty good night vision, but out in the middle of nowhere, when it was too cloudy to see the moon or clouds, there was absolutely no light to go off of.

“I thought we would head back now.” Ben said from behind the wheel. “But before we go, have you guys seen the ocean at night before?”

Harry frowned. “No.” He had only really seen the ocean for the first time when they had been brought to Auradon. He had never even thought about taking a look at the ocean at night. Now, he was rather curious. Harry, Uma, and Gil all looked over the edge of the boat towards the ocean.

“That’s...amazing.” Uma said.

“Wow.” Gil commented breathlessly. Harry found himself rather breathless at the sight too, though not for the same reason.

It was so...dark. No, ‘dark’ wasn’t the right word to describe it. The ocean and sky were the exact same, not the color black, not any color at all. It was just nothingness in every direction, as far as the eye could see. It was as though the universe had been swallowed up whole. There was no safety, no light, no…

...no escape.

Harry unconsciously took a step back and tried to draw in a breath, but he couldn’t. His throat just wouldn’t work He couldn’t...he couldn’t…

“Hey,” Harry blinked when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Harry!” A strong but gentle grip turned him till he was facing away from the ocean and right into Gil’s face. “You okay?” Gil’s tone was casual, but his smile was kind and reassuring, and his eyes were full of nothing but concern.

“I c...I ca…” Harry clenched his teeth and whined at the back of his throat. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Gil briefly glanced out to the ocean, but he kept his focus on Harry. Gil gently pushed on Harry’s shoulders, guiding him to lower himself and sit down on the deck. “It’s pretty freaky out there, isn’t it?”

Gil said this so calmly. Why was he so calm? They were surrounded by darkness, they were the only signs of life for miles around. There was no telling if anything was out there. But what bothered Harry most was that he didn’t know what scared him more, the fact that he wouldn’t be able to see if a monster was out the until it was right on top of them, or the possibility that there wasn’t anything out there, just neverending nothingness.

“Harry!” Gil said sharply as he put his hands on his face, forcing Harry to look at him. “It’s okay, we’re okay.”

“Y-you don...you don’t…” Harry growled to himself.

“No I guess I don’t know that.” Gil admitted. “But I know that we’re here together, none of us are hurt, and isn’t that okay?”

Harry whined again, and Gil moved his hands down to grip Harry’s. Gil squeezed his hands in a reassuring manner. 

“Is everything okay?” Harry stiffened at Ben’s concerned but confused words.

“It’s fine.” Uma said stiffly, though the concern in her voice was obvious to him. “This kind of thing happens sometimes. Gil has it under control.”

“You don’t have to listen to them.” Gil said. “Just listen to me.” Gil crawled a little bit out and laid down on the ground. He pulled Harry down to follow his example. “You know the stars up there?” Gil pointed up at the sky. The clouds were blocking the view of any clouds, but both Harry and Gil had been doing a lot of stargazing since coming to Auradon. They had a fair idea of what the night sky looked like.

“Close your eyes and imagine the stars.” Gil said, and Harry did as he asked. “Do you see them?

Harry nodded. “Y-yeah.” He said roughly. He could easily imagine the night sky in his mind’s eye.

“Do you see our stars up there?” Gil asked. Harry felt his face twitch in a small grin. 

“Aye.” Harry said. “C-course I see them.” The stars that he had shown to Gill that first day in Auradon.

“Second star to the right.” Gil said quietly.

“An’ straight on t-til mornin’.” Harry finished as he let out a shuddered breath.

“We’ll go there someday.” Gil promised. “You and me.”

“Are you two planning on leaving me behind?” Uma asked as she came and laid down on the ground on Harry’s other side. “And here I thought we were a team.” Uma put her hand on top of Harry and Gil’s.

“Of course we are.” Gil said. “The three of us. We’ll get ourselves a boat and go to Neverland someday.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Uma sad as she turned her read and rested it against Harry’s shoulder. 

“Aye.” Harry sighed as he actually returned the tight grip that Uma and Gil had on his hands. It was a nice reminder that they were right there for him, and always would be.

Uma, she was his anchor. She kept him grounded, held him down and stopped him from doing something that he would regret in the future. Gil, he didn’t like to tell Harry that he was wrong. Gil usually let Harry do his own thing. But the one thing that Gil did probably better than Uma did was keep Harry safe from himself. Gil was his warmth, his light.

It was funny. Harry had never thought that he would need light in his life, and now, he couldn’t imagine his life without it. 

Harry had grown up without the two of them around. He had never realized just what he had been missing. He had spent some time without Uma, and it was like he had completely lost whatever grip he’d ever had on reality. He had been kept from Gil, and he’d lost his entire sense of purpose and just started going through the motions.

Harry only felt completely whole when he was with both Gil and Uma. They...they were the only thing that kept him sane. He needed them in his life, both of them. He couldn’t let them go. He wouldn’t let them go. The three of them were a team, and that was how they always would be. They were a crew, a team, a family, now and forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This doesn’t sound like the best ending to a story, but this is honestly the way that felt right. Harry, Uma, and Gil are all a team, they’re together, they’re...maybe not happy, but certainly content.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this story.


End file.
